Originally Posted by Owain
That is the risk you run with any contract, but in my experience, I have never seen it happen, which leads me to believe that it isn't as common as people fear.


I've had it happen to me and known many it has happened to. Its really damn common. My family is friends with a great many attorneys and judges, including my godfather who took up my case when Nationwide tried to bone me hard. I know how common it is, many people build their whole careers on dealing with those issues. Aside from that, I knew many people growing up who also had to deal with it - but didn't also have the resources or background to navigate it successfully and just got hosed.

Insurance companies do a calculation for every major claim, as to whether, based on their data, it would be cheaper in aggregate to pay claims or deny. They go the cheaper route in every case.

Of course, people use insurance wrong in any case. People want to use it as a backstop against bad luck, but the true purpose of insurance is to turn intangible and random costs into tangible and fixed costs. At the end of the day, the only thing you can trust is your own savings.

Of course, the only reason we, or anyone, is even having these conversations is because the fundamentals of the health market are so incredibly broken to start with, and the overall economic outlook of many people is so abysmal.

For who could be free when every other man's humour might domineer over him? - John Locke (2nd Treatise, sect 57)