Living in Michigan it is required to have proof of insurance when renewing your licence plates. Being close to my birthday I had the unfortunate experience of shopping around to ensure I was getting the best rate.

In doing so I learned that forcing people to buy a service, such as insurance, will only lead to the consumer being ripped off. Here is why,

Now that auto insurance has been a mandatory requirment for registering and plating automobiles for quite some time insurance companies have found ways to offer insurance policies that meet the minimum requirement of the law, yet pretty much limit any possibility they will have to pay out in a claim.

My insurance on a 1991 Mercedes for PLPD (The absolute bare minimum required by the state) is about $1000 per year, and thats just about everywhere I checked. I got rates from AAA, Geiko, Progressive and All State. All of them within a hundred dollars of each other and some of them companies even require you buy a yearly membership in order to buy their insurance (AAA).

Now for $1000 per year, should I get in an accident and total my vehicle I will get ZERO dollars. This is often called PLPD here in Michigan. If I do not have insurance coverage that estimate would have been higher. I asked the representative exacly what I get for $1000 a year and he said to me "If you get sued we will cover your legal expenses up to $50,000". That's it! Personal property and bodily injury coverage is so low on these PLPD policies that they wouldn't even cover a 1 day stay in a hospital, let alone if you needed to be air-lifted or transported via ambulance.

So what we have here is an FINE EXAMPLE of why making people buy insurance is a BAD IDEA. It pretty much forces everyone to buy insurance, however the minimum requiments that are usually set out by law really couldnt be considered "Insurance" because in the event of a loss your pretty much not covered. And since the state is on the hook for uninsured motorist, the state actually gets involved in paying most of the money in the event someone does not have insurance, or just the minumums.

I got a feeling that the new mandate to buy heath insurance will be much the same, where in order to comply and not have to pay the fine you will have to buy a policy that really isnt worth a damn anyway, and thus you will just be paying because of the mandate to do so.  

I asked one of the insurance agents what it would cost to purchase a good policy that covered collision with higher maximums and the cost was in the $3000 a year stratosphere. That breaks down to a few hundred dollars a month, and you can bet your ass when something does happen they will try and weezle out of it somehow.

So here you have a situation where insurance companies KNOW you HAVE to buy something, so over the years they figured out a way to offer insurance that meets the minumum requirements, yet pretty much ensures you have nothing in terms of coverage. This way they can be sure that the money you pay each year stays in their coffers. Should you want something MORE than the minimum they will charge you so much money it's not even worth it, and when the time does come that you have a loss you can bet your sweet ass they will wiggle their way out of it.

Yes this is a serious problem... It's called the fleecing of Americans and it's soon going to be a nation-wide fleecing where it wont matter what state your in, we will all be forced to either buy a crappy policy that meets the minimum requirements, or raped for a plan that offers a little more. Should you refuse both your going to get a fine. Should you be poor other people will pay for your insurance, and that insurance you get will be better than the guy who has to pay for his own minimum requirement insurance that isn't worth a damn.

Did I forget to mention that in addition to insurance the state wants $300 for plates and registration? Yes every year I bitch about it, and every year I end up getting fleeced along with millions of other Michiganders. Soon everyone in America will learn what happens when you offer a private business of any product or service a "Mandate" to buy their product or service.

If Obama ever had to pay for a thing in his life he might know this, and would have thought twice about a heath care mandate. As it stands he grew up on handouts, and once he got into government he could give a hoot what "Regular" people get stuck with.