Want to be an actuary? Odds are, you’ll fail the test • Hacker News Board

Re: Want to be an actuary? Odds are, you’ll fail the test

#71

Post by extr » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 10:59 PM UTC

romwell wrote: post #57

d136o wrote: post #39

In this [1] interview by Barry Ritholtz, Markel CEO essentially told the origin story of an insurance giant. Basically a family member was a lawmaker, passed a law that drivers of the newly invented cars (maybe horse buggies?) must be insured. They simultaneously started a company that sold insurance. Over time they learned to make money from investing their customers capital. It blew my mind at how candid he was abo…

Side story about how satisfied people can be with the mandated insurance. I was on coast-to-coast road trip when I got into an accident in TX. Someone was trying to pass me on the left in a turning lane, veered into the incoming lane, and then hit my vehicle's front wheels from the back. The police ticketed the other driver, and told me that insurance will surely take care of that on my side. "Wow, it's worse than we…

It sounds like you were just cheap, didn't want to purchase comprehensive coverage, then that came back to bite you. This sucks, but is hardly a scam. Even worse, it sounds like you even understood what comprehensive coverage does (cover 1st party physical damage regardless of situation), and consciously chose not to buy it, assuming that anything that would possibly happen to the vehicle would be someone else's fault. Terrible assumption on a cross country road trip. You would have been equally fucked if you hit a deer, spun out in a rain storm and hit a median, popped a tire and ran into a ditch, etc.

Re: Want to be an actuary? Odds are, you’ll fail the test

#72

Post by omosubi » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 10:59 PM UTC

topkai22 wrote: post #10

omosubi wrote: post #2

I feel very difficult exams should be commonplace. Everyone should be held to very high standards. It's surprising how many professions don't do this. For example, I've been to several physical therapists who barely seemed to understand what was wrong with me even after several visits. Each gave me what seemed like the same standard routine that they give everyone with problem.

The over use of occupational licensing has some well documented negative effects, see https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/OccupationalLicensing.h... for some points about it. However, physical therapists already have an occupational licensing exam. You could argue that it’s not hard enough, as it does have a high pass rate for those who have graduated from a PT university program, but then you start drifting into “n…

Yes this is true. I realize my comment had the wrong tenor in that the actual exams matter less than just having rigorous courses. Not everyone should be a doctor or a physical therapist or a software engineer and it's common nowadays to credential so that some institution can make money.

Re: Want to be an actuary? Odds are, you’ll fail the test

#73

Post by gnopgnip » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 11:01 PM UTC

d136o wrote: post #39

In this [1] interview by Barry Ritholtz, Markel CEO essentially told the origin story of an insurance giant. Basically a family member was a lawmaker, passed a law that drivers of the newly invented cars (maybe horse buggies?) must be insured. They simultaneously started a company that sold insurance. Over time they learned to make money from investing their customers capital. It blew my mind at how candid he was abo…

Do you want someone who is "self insuring" to crash into you?

Re: Want to be an actuary? Odds are, you’ll fail the test

#74

Post by heavyset_go » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 11:02 PM UTC

gurchik wrote: post #55

d136o wrote: post #39

In this [1] interview by Barry Ritholtz, Markel CEO essentially told the origin story of an insurance giant. Basically a family member was a lawmaker, passed a law that drivers of the newly invented cars (maybe horse buggies?) must be insured. They simultaneously started a company that sold insurance. Over time they learned to make money from investing their customers capital. It blew my mind at how candid he was abo…

> Are there insurance products that people are really satisfied with and trust will pay out in case of event X? I've always been happy with renter's insurance and have paid it since my first apartment in college. I pay $100/yr for a 50k limit policy. Unlike car insurance I am not required to have this, but I've always considered it to be worth it. I also pay for pet insurance. Again, not required to have it but when…

> I also pay for pet insurance. Again, not required to have it but when I considered cancelling and self-insuring I filed a claim and was immediately paid out hassle free. That convinced me to keep it.

Don't get rid of it, the cost of healthcare for pets is quickly reaching the cost of healthcare for humans.

Re: Want to be an actuary? Odds are, you’ll fail the test

#75

Post by stefan_ » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 11:06 PM UTC

d136o wrote: post #39

In this [1] interview by Barry Ritholtz, Markel CEO essentially told the origin story of an insurance giant. Basically a family member was a lawmaker, passed a law that drivers of the newly invented cars (maybe horse buggies?) must be insured. They simultaneously started a company that sold insurance. Over time they learned to make money from investing their customers capital. It blew my mind at how candid he was abo…

The joke there is that every driver in the US still needs to carry uninsured driver insurance because so many don't have any and there are no checks. And of course the coverage minimums are utterly laughable; put a kid in a wheelchair and you are looking at many many millions of damage, $100k isn't gonna cut it.

Re: Want to be an actuary? Odds are, you’ll fail the test

#76

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 11:07 PM UTC

extr wrote: post #71

romwell wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Side story about how satisfied people can be with the mandated insurance. I was on coast-to-coast road trip when I got into an accident in TX. Someone was trying to pass me on the left in a turning lane, veered into the incoming lane, and then hit my vehicle's front wheels from the back. The police ticketed the other driver, and told me that insurance will surely take care of that on my side. "Wow, it's worse than we…

It sounds like you were just cheap, didn't want to purchase comprehensive coverage, then that came back to bite you. This sucks, but is hardly a scam. Even worse, it sounds like you even understood what comprehensive coverage does (cover 1st party physical damage regardless of situation), and consciously chose not to buy it, assuming that anything that would possibly happen to the vehicle would be someone else's faul…

[deleted]

Re: Want to be an actuary? Odds are, you’ll fail the test

#77

Post by hermannj314 » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 11:07 PM UTC

duckmysick wrote: post #62

throwawaygh wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It blew my mind at how candid he was about the fact that his business exists due to regulatory mandates. This is extraordinarily well understood in the insurance industry. They don't think of it as odd or a dirty secret, at all. It's more surprising that he was so open about the naked corruption/nepotism in the origin story. Apparently there's a sector of society for whom that is also normal and acceptable. > I fee…

> Health insurance is a pretty terrible product. What's the alternative?

Health insurance is a terrible product because it is usually not insurance at all.

If you are an alcoholic with a history of OWI/DUIs and you have a pre-existing car accident and no job, no one expects you to get free car insurance paid for by the government that will fix your already damaged car and make sure you can drive again as a human right.

In Healthcare, we assume that product should exist and we demand that it be called insurance for some reason.

The alternative to health insurance is free Healthcare. It isn't insurance at all.

Re: Want to be an actuary? Odds are, you’ll fail the test

#78

Post by aspenmayer » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 11:09 PM UTC

duckmysick wrote: post #62

throwawaygh wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It blew my mind at how candid he was about the fact that his business exists due to regulatory mandates. This is extraordinarily well understood in the insurance industry. They don't think of it as odd or a dirty secret, at all. It's more surprising that he was so open about the naked corruption/nepotism in the origin story. Apparently there's a sector of society for whom that is also normal and acceptable. > I fee…

> Health insurance is a pretty terrible product. What's the alternative?

A single payer system?

Or a hybrid system with Medicare for all with income limits, above which you must either get third party insurance or pay a small tax is how it was done in Australia last time I was there. It seemed to work well when I was there, and I did have need of it. I had to go to the ER when I was peeing blood after being kicked by a horse directly in the kidney. Fortunately there were no blood clots and it passed after a day or two, but they had to do tests to verify it all and also an MRI I believe. I never got a bill.

I had more medical expenses from mandatory screening fees for visa applications there than from a potentially life threatening medical emergency. And it was included in my yearly taxes with no fees at the point of usage for anything I can remember offhand.

Meds were cheap because the whole country’s Medicare board bargains with the pharmaceutical companies directly, and if your meds are too expensive, they will just go with a competitor and leave that vendor out of the Medicare coverage schedule. This is not unequivocally a good thing, but those meds are still available on the market, but you will pay more for them unless you have third party coverage. Generics are also available just like most places.

Not sure if it’s changed since, as that was like 15 years ago.

Re: Want to be an actuary? Odds are, you’ll fail the test

#79

Post by AQuantized » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 11:10 PM UTC

gizmo686 wrote: post #68

romwell wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Side story about how satisfied people can be with the mandated insurance. I was on coast-to-coast road trip when I got into an accident in TX. Someone was trying to pass me on the left in a turning lane, veered into the incoming lane, and then hit my vehicle's front wheels from the back. The police ticketed the other driver, and told me that insurance will surely take care of that on my side. "Wow, it's worse than we…

Whats the scam? The insurance company was hired to provide insurance for the other driver. By all accounts they did so. If the other driver had no insurance, your options would have been the same: hope they pay out of good will, or sue them. The public policy motivation for liability insurance is to protect the lawsuit route. If you sue an uninsured driver and win, you might not be able to collect (getting blood from…

The 'scam' seems to be insofar as wealthy and powerful entities can exploit the functional inability of those less wealthy and powerful to meet them on even terms in the legal system. I think we could all agree that in an ideal world if someone is at fault, their insurance should pay out to those they damaged. The reality is that may only happen if you have an entity of similar magnitude to go to bat for you.

That doesn't mean it's a good idea to not get comprehensive insurance, but police reports should probably carry some weight without requiring a suit.

Re: Want to be an actuary? Odds are, you’ll fail the test

#80

Post by SilasX » Tue, Dec 28, 2021, 11:13 PM UTC

gizmo686 wrote: post #68

romwell wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Side story about how satisfied people can be with the mandated insurance. I was on coast-to-coast road trip when I got into an accident in TX. Someone was trying to pass me on the left in a turning lane, veered into the incoming lane, and then hit my vehicle's front wheels from the back. The police ticketed the other driver, and told me that insurance will surely take care of that on my side. "Wow, it's worse than we…

Whats the scam? The insurance company was hired to provide insurance for the other driver. By all accounts they did so. If the other driver had no insurance, your options would have been the same: hope they pay out of good will, or sue them. The public policy motivation for liability insurance is to protect the lawsuit route. If you sue an uninsured driver and win, you might not be able to collect (getting blood from…

No, he’s (reasonably) upset that the other side’s insurance did not pay out when it was clearly their client’s fault, banking on his difficulty of filing a lawsuit.

What do you call someone who victimizes people he know have a disadvantage in suing him?