Car insurance in Louisiana (2 Viewers)

[efil4stnias]

she decided not to do the surgery. But she did go to Physical Therapy twice a week for about 4 months, then once a week for another couple.
The doctor said the tear was small, so she could do either. can't remember if he called it Rotor Cuff Tendinitis or Tendinosis or Tendinopathy, something with tendin in it..l
The therapy was $140 a pop because of my high deductible insurance, which I had to pay full price until we met the deductible, plus the missed time at work..
The ins co was Safeco, which is part of Liberty Mutual. They were quick on paying out for repair of the vehicle. But I did have to fight with them over the rental. We have a Nissan Rogue and they wanted to give us a Ford Fusion. We had a mid sized SUV, I wanted an equal while it was being repaired, not small car.

which you are entitled to. Indemnification. Unfortunately for you, you were part of a system that is doing all it can to manage costs, while staring losses in the face annually.

If i told you the loss ratio for Progressive Commercial Auto was 124% would you believe me? That means for every $1 in premium they take in, they pay $1.24 in claims.

Insurance companies make their money by investing the premiums. They would have to get an ROI of 30% or greater JUST TO BREAK EVEN.

thats unsustainable.

 

[threexcharm]

the appeal to him ( and state legislature ) is simple.

You are driving people and businesses OUT of LA into MS. TX and ARK.

So another client- 2 party busses- pays $23,000~ annual for $510CSL. He looked at moving to Bay St. Louis ( his operations ) - for $750,000 CSL and getting his DOT ( since he will cross state lines ) - $11,000 annual.

TWELVE THOUSAND LESS. For moving 40 miles.

I lose the account and the state loses a tax paying resident and business.

My brother moved from Pearl River to Picayune a few months ago. That is 15 miles apart. He has a teenage daughter and a teenage son driving. His premiums dropped almost 20%.

 

[bigdaddysaints]

which you are entitled to. Indemnification. Unfortunately for you, you were part of a system that is doing all it can to manage costs, while staring losses in the face annually.

If i told you the loss ratio for Progressive Commercial Auto was 124% would you believe me? That means for every $1 in premium they take in, they pay $1.24 in claims.

Insurance companies make their money by investing the premiums. They would have to get an ROI of 30% or greater JUST TO BREAK EVEN.

thats unsustainable.

heck yes I'm entitled to it. you try putting 5 people in a small car along with baseball and softball gear. it's not like I was asking to be put into luxury or extra large SUV, just equivalent to what we had.

ok so you told them surgery was on the table, yet it never materialized. So see, not to play devils advocate here, but merely mentioning that to them makes them think "oh lord..."surgery" here we go". So what happened is that you experienced just how jaded companies have gotten here in La.

One other item....when you go thru insurers, medical is allowed to bill at FULL RATES. So they cannot negotiate rates like a health insurer can. They pay those rates.

play devils advocate all you want, but there were 3 children in the vehicle. we could have easily gotten way more money out of the insurance co if we were just trying to have a payday. (I never filed a claim for the kids)
the layers didn't have any more medical information than we had already given the insurance co. so why did they pay the maximum instead of going to court once lawyers got involved? I gave then every opportunity to do it without lawyers. I suspect they would have dragged it out as long as they could to try and put the pressure on us to settle for way less. obviously it works more times than not or they wouldn't take that risk. I'm sure a lot of people settle because they just want the money. we had all the medical bills and documentation to back up everything. she didn't go to any lawyer suggested therapist or doctor she went to her own personal doctor and the physical therapists he recommend. we told them point blank that if they couldn't agree we would get a lawyer. they took a chance and lost. regardless if she had the surgery or not, when I comes to doctor visits and many therapy visits, it doesn't take long to hit the 5k amount. if we only had to.pay a $25 co pay for each visit, maybe it wouldn't have come to that. but because we had to pay out of pocket for each and every visit, it did.

 

[efil4stnias]

heck yes I'm entitled to it. you try putting 5 people in a small car along with baseball and softball gear. it's not like I was asking to be put into luxury or extra large SUV, just equivalent to what we had.

play devils advocate all you want, but there were 3 children in the vehicle. we could have easily gotten way more money out of the insurance co if we were just trying to have a payday. (I never filed a claim for the kids)
the layers didn't have any more medical information than we had already given the insurance co. so why did they pay the maximum instead of going to court once lawyers got involved? I gave then every opportunity to do it without lawyers. I suspect they would have dragged it out as long as they could to try and put the pressure on us to settle for way less. obviously it works more times than not or they wouldn't take that risk. I'm sure a lot of people settle because they just want the money. we had all the medical bills and documentation to back up everything. she didn't go to any lawyer suggested therapist or doctor she went to her own personal doctor and the physical therapists he recommend. we told them point blank that if they couldn't agree we would get a lawyer. they took a chance and lost. regardless if she had the surgery or not, when I comes to doctor visits and many therapy visits, it doesn't take long to hit the 5k amount. if we only had to.pay a $25 co pay for each visit, maybe it wouldn't have come to that. but because we had to pay out of pocket for each and every visit, it did.

I cant answer why Safeco decided to go to court...im simply explaining to you why carriers act in the manner they do. For every one of you there is 10 that are "soft tissue" injuries that are simply too hard to disprove and end up costing carriers 10s of 1000s. We have one right now that claimed back injury, cant work etc etc. The genius posted a video on FB of him loading a broken down 4 wheeler into the bed of a pick up - PULLING IT BY HAND UP THE RAMP. Stands up and flexes for the camera and says "im a BEAST".

I was simply giving you the reason carriers act jaded. They have to in the litigious environment the personal injury attorneys created here.

G. Gordon McKernon ( out of Baton Rouge ) spends $5,000,000 annual on advertising. not $500,000......$5 MILLION. There isnt a billobard between Baton Rouge and Lake Charles that doesnt bear his name. From car wrecks to maritime. Every local channel in New Orleans ( morning edition ) is innundated with personal injury commercials. The stations dont mind because they are making ad revenue. But when you are constantly bombarded with "quick easy $$$" if you are in a fender bender, chances are you will hire one of those attorneys to make some $$. Never once realizing that you are simply compounding the problem. Then turn around and yell at your agent that insurance is just too high and a racket.

/offsoapbox lol

 

[bigdaddysaints]

I cant answer why Safeco decided to go to court...im simply explaining to you why carriers act in the manner they do. For every one of you there is 10 that are "soft tissue" injuries that are simply too hard to disprove and end up costing carriers 10s of 1000s. We have one right now that claimed back injury, cant work etc etc. The genius posted a video on FB of him loading a broken down 4 wheeler into the bed of a pick up - PULLING IT BY HAND UP THE RAMP. Stands up and flexes for the camera and says "im a BEAST".

I was simply giving you the reason carriers act jaded. They have to in the litigious environment the personal injury attorneys created here.

G. Gordon McKernon ( out of Baton Rouge ) spends $5,000,000 annual on advertising. not $500,000......$5 MILLION. There isnt a billobard between Baton Rouge and Lake Charles that doesnt bear his name. From car wrecks to maritime. Every local channel in New Orleans ( morning edition ) is innundated with personal injury commercials. The stations dont mind because they are making ad revenue. But when you are constantly bombarded with "quick easy $$$" if you are in a fender bender, chances are you will hire one of those attorneys to make some $$. Never once realizing that you are simply compounding the problem. Then turn around and yell at your agent that insurance is just too high and a racket.

/offsoapbox lol

I agree. I have no doubt the insurance companies brought it on themselves. One profession I trust less than Lawyers are Insurance Companies.
I truly believed the reason they wouldn't pay before being sued was they thought we would just give up and take whatever offer they decided to throw to us after making us wait as long as possible.
We have all this data showing the lawsuit and payout's, but I would think it would be impossible to have data on times the insurance company paid almost nothing because people didn't know any better or let the time run out or just plain out screwed people.
Lawyers and Insurance companies were made for each other...

 

[bonnjer]

Shocker:

Milkovich - injury lawyer
https://www.johnmilkovichlaw.com/
Ryan Gatti - injury lawyer
http://www.ryangatti.com/
Jay Luneau - injury lawyer
http://luneaulaw.com/
Rick Ward - injury lawyer
https://www.facebook.com/claytonfrugeward/

How is this not a conflict of interest?

 

[efil4stnias]

I agree. I have no doubt the insurance companies brought it on themselves. One profession I trust less than Lawyers are Insurance Companies.
I truly believed the reason they wouldn't pay before being sued was they thought we would just give up and take whatever offer they decided to throw to us after making us wait as long as possible.
We have all this data showing the lawsuit and payout's, but I would think it would be impossible to have data on times the insurance company paid almost nothing because people didn't know any better or let the time run out or just plain out screwed people.
Lawyers and Insurance companies were made for each other...

uh huh. Nevermind the 100 attorneys that line Canal St from N. Rampart to City Park Ave.

 

[bigdaddysaints]

Insurance have a LONG history of messing people over. Greed breeds Greed.
Lawyers and Insurance are 2 peas in a pod.
For every person that takes advantage of the system, there's a person who is getting screwed by an Insurance company.
But I get the feeling that you are painting the insurance companies as the victim. they are just part of a double headed snake...

 

[efil4stnias]

Insurance have a LONG history of messing people over. Greed breeds Greed.
Lawyers and Insurance are 2 peas in a pod.
For every person that takes advantage of the system, there's a person who is getting screwed by an Insurance company.
But I get the feeling that you are painting the insurance companies as the victim. they are just part of a double headed snake...

Here in Louisiana they are being victimized by fraudulent claims at a rate you arent even close to familiar with.

You have already decided that insurance companies are the debil and im not attempting to change your mind. Simply pointing to the problems that drive rates higher and carriers from writing insurance in this State.

 

[bigdaddysaints]

There definitely needs to be a lot changes to stop the fraudulent claims. and yes, I will always think the insurance companies are the debil and Lawyers and are tied with them.
Also, I'm sure having so many Insurance Commissioners having served jail time hasn't helped our rates either..

 

[You]

Also, I'm sure having so many Insurance Commissioners having served jail time hasn't helped our rates either..

Literally has nothing to do with the current situation.

Are you a plaintiff attorney or somehow connected with one?

 

[St. Widge]

TORT REFORM is where it starts. The rest will fall in line because rates will decrease substantially.

But the Barts, McKernons, the Forstalls of this state will do everything they can to avoid tort reform.

What reforms do you think would fix the problem?

From my perspective, we went to pure comparative fault many years ago along with duty/risk analysis which were both considered strong reforms, but neither has made any difference and things seem to keep getting worse.

It seems to me the issue is actually in who we elect as Judges and who funds those campaigns more than anything else. The law is fine. The problem is that Judges seldom evenly apply the law. And, even when they do juries will award huge verdicts with very little to no evidence.

So, in the end, if you want your car insurance rates lower, elect better judges that are not controlled by the Plaintiffs' Bar, push to have Judges appointed by an equitable merit system rather than popularly elected, and don't try to get out of jury duty every chance you get. Serve on juries and try to make them just. As it is, juries are mostly made up of people who had nothing better to do or couldn't figure out how to get out of it. The result are highly uneducated juries who don't understand the value of money and/or don't understand the case that was presented to them. The result is that they judge based on emotion and sympathy more than anything else. That means big jury verdicts and higher insurance rates.

 

[St. Widge]

Having a trial lawyer in the Governor's mansion is going to make it that much harder, I'm afraid.

John Bell Edwards is a pretty conservative guy at his core. I'm sure he owes political allegiance to some, but he isn't likely to stand in the way of reform. But, again, I don't think the problem is the law. The problem is the Judges we elect and the people who serve on juries.

Not to mention some doctors who should probably lose their licenses.

 

[St. Widge]

Not 2 lawsuits that were filed because our insurer wouldn't negotiate or pay a medical bill. Just 2 lawsuits filed 6 months later out of the blue. That's the SOP around here, and its terrible for residents, businesses, insurers, and basically anyone except Morris Bart et al

Much though I am not a fan of Buddy Bart, he isn't the real problem regarding insurance rates. Insurance companies are actually happy when someone hires him because he won't go to trial unless it is a really good case for him with potentially high dollars and he usually settles cases for pennies on the dollar. He is just looking for easy settlements for minimum coverage policy limits It's the guys who can and will try any case that push up the jury verdicts and the settlement numbers.

 

[St. Widge]

heck yes I'm entitled to it. you try putting 5 people in a small car along with baseball and softball gear. it's not like I was asking to be put into luxury or extra large SUV, just equivalent to what we had.

play devils advocate all you want, but there were 3 children in the vehicle. we could have easily gotten way more money out of the insurance co if we were just trying to have a payday. (I never filed a claim for the kids)
the layers didn't have any more medical information than we had already given the insurance co. so why did they pay the maximum instead of going to court once lawyers got involved?

The reason is because once lawyers get involved, they have to pay their lawyers. They likely made a business decision that it would be cheaper in the long run to just pay policy limits than to pay defense lawyers to work the case up to trial. So, yeah, insurance companies don't have clean hands in all of this.