Japan Earthquake No Insurance for Israelis Living on Fault Line
Filed under: Environment, History and Culture
Israel has offered to help the shaken country of Japan emerge from the rubble. Now with a possible nuclear meltdown looming, Japan’s woes may only have just begun. Globally, what’s been happening in Japan has sent shockwaves and tremors to the nuclear energy industry, and environmentalists with their tongues sticking out, use the catastrophe to remind the world about the dangers of mixing nuclear energy with natural disasters.
You can buy house insurance, and of course car insurance (if you still drive a drive a car that is, along with plenty of cheap car insurance quotes out there) but one thing the world can’t buy is nuclear meltdown insurance.
Remember the Chernobyl meltdown and the wine produced that year –– wine whose grapes were contaminated with nuclear fallout? Just like the dust cloud after the volcano eruption, the fallout from a nuclear meltdown in Japan could wind around the globe, affecting animals, people and plants in its wake. Damage done to our DNA from radiation doesn’t end with one or two generations but can persist to eternity. There is no insurance in the world that can cover this damage. Read more
‘I just went out to get milk, and I’ll be right back’
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, Business, Crime, General, Israeliness
I may not be in Israel right now, but I want it to be known that someone is constantly in my home. It’s not empty! There’s no reason for burglars to think that it’s an easy target.
There, maybe I’ve covered my butt with my insurance company. According to reports floating around the blogosphere and Facebook, some Israeli insurance companies have started denying payments to clients whose homes have been robbed if they previously posted their plans on Facebook.
There’s already been well-discussed incidents of Facebook users getting in trouble with their employers after calling in sick and then posting photos of relaxation on the beach in Bahamas. But that’s just sheer stupidity.
This time, there’s alot more gray area. When I post on my Facebook updates that I’m going to travel to the US, only my 300 (very odd) friends are supposed to see it, not the villains from ‘Home Alone.’ I can only think of a handful of friends who might actually rob homes and most of them have either given it up for the straight life or aren’t even in Israel, so I should be safe, right?
Not according to some insurance companies evidently. As regular readers may notice, I’m not a fan of the insurance biz, neither in Israel nor abroad, and this is just one more example of their attempts to weasel out of valid coverage by hard-working home owners.
So next time you’re planning a vacation, think twice about letting anyone know about it – or if you do squeal, make sure you let everyone know about the IDF battalion that is going to house sit for you.
Giving insurance companies an (even worse) name
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, Crime, General, Israeliness, Life
This is about as mundane a subject as is out there, but it certainly reflects that the reality of living in Israel has very little to do with the headlines most people read, and more to do with the trials and tribulations we all face no matter where we live.
I wrote a few weeks ago about the hassles of making an insurance claim after being sideswiped in a traffic accident. Well, it all seemingly worked out well, and yesterday – less than two weeks of laying out over $1,000 to fix the car and sending in the claim to the insurance company (Migdal, in case anybody is interested, one of the country’s biggest insurance companies) – I received a check in the mail.
Hurray for a victory over Israeli bureaucracy, right? Not quite. The check was made out for the amount of the claim, minus 10%. An accompanying letter stated that the deduction was due to ‘contributing negligence’ on my part.
WTF? Now, a quick recap. I was driving down a road in Jerusalem in the Romema industrial area. My nemesis wanted to turn right onto my road from a small side street with a stop sign. After stopping and supposedly looking both ways, she turned right and clomped into my right back door as I was driving, minding my own business.
Was this 10% contributing negligence? I think not. Luckily Migdal’s claim manager’s name and number were on the letter, so I called her- and got through to her! I explained to her that I was not even one percent responsible for the accident, and when I asked her to explain her reasoning, she said, “do you even know the traffic rules? Do you know that at any intersection with a stop sign, that the driver with the right of way has a responsibility to slow down?”
I said I was not aware of that rule, and that even the driver of the other car, whom she insures, admitted to being 100% responsible for the accident.
“Well, that’s what I decided. There are some claims I take off 50% for negligence, I only took 10% off of yours,” she said.
“But you weren’t even there. You don’t know what happened,” I answered.
“So what? That’s the way it is.”
I realized that this was a futile conversation and ended it, and also realized it was a pathetic attempt by Migdal to save a few measly hundred shekels by bullying and shortchanging innocent victims of accidents.
So, if you ever get hit by another driver, and think that you’re going to receive complete reimbursement for the damages rendered, you might be better off settling with the driver without involving the cheating, conniving insurance companies.
Body shop makes a dent in insurance premiums
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, General, Israeliness, Life
In a country where there’s nary a car that’s not pocked with dents, scrapes, and nicks, I’ve been extremely fortunate to have escaped being involved with any road accidents that required involving insurance companies. Until last week.
An older lady turned right at a stop sign, without really looking left, and sideswiped my car as I drove by. When we pulled over, I really wanted to wail on her, over how she typified the aggressive, sloppy Israeli driving style. But she was so apologetic and shaken up that I ended up telling her it wasn’t so bad and that she shouldn’t worry.
And it wasn’t that bad, just some paint scraped away, one door guard ripped off and a slight dent. I told her I would bring it to the body shop next door to my usual mechanic and see how much it cost. It the estimate was less than her NIS 1,000 deductible, which I was sure it would be, then we could avoid going through our insurance companies and the accompanying hassles.
The next day, I brought the car to the body shop and was given an estimate for NIS 1,600. So I tried a couple other places, but received similar estimates. Of course, at that point, the lady decided to go through her insurance company, which triggered a series of bureaucratic forms, faxes, phone calls and a visit to an accident assessor that over the next few days kept me busy for hours.
It’s an odd arrangement when the victim of an accident ends up having to do all the work to repair the damage caused by the other person. But that’s just a sideline to the main point here – yes, there is one.
I finally got the car repairs completed yesterday at the original body shop I went to and went to the office to settle up (I also didn’t know that I had to pay for all the repairs and accident assessor costs, and then file a claim with the lady’s insurance company to get reimbursed.)
When I asked the manager who to make the NIS 1,600 check out to, he said ‘no, that’s not how much it cost – it’s NIS 3,450.’
Now, I’m getting reimbursed anyway, but I couldn’t resist asking him, ‘You told me when I was going to do the repair privately that it would be NIS 1,600. You’re doubling the price because the insurance company is paying for it?’
He just shrugged and said the Hebrew equivalent of ‘That’s the way it is.’
Maybe I’m just naive, and this is the way of the world, not only in Israel but in most countries when it comes to insurance claims. But it just doesn’t seem right, does it. I’ve always wondered why our car insurance premiums are so outrageously high. And yesterday, I found out why.
Pants off to Israel’s motorcycle protestors
Maybe it’s the hot weather, but protesters in Israel seem to like to get naked. The latest group to strip down to their underpants were the motorcyclists, hundreds of whom took to the streets of Tel Aviv late last week protesting against a hike in their insurance fees.
This is the fourth demo by the motorcycle community, who are getting increasingly incensed by the thought of the insurance rise, which is due to take place in November. In the last protest they snarled up route 2 causing heavy traffic jams.
Their motto this time was “They are leaving us without coverage”, which in Hebrew is a play on words that also means “without clothes/covers”. Hence the absolute necessity to whip off their clothes.
Walla covered the protest with lots of snaps and a video – naked people make good news obviously.
The demonstration comes just a few months after the Israel Bicycle Association and the Tel Aviv Rollers staged another protest ride to oppose the lack of government support for urban bike riding – in their thongs.
David reported on the bike protest here in Israelity. From a purely visceral point of view, it probably made better viewing, as bike riders and roller-bladers tend to be in much better shape than bikers.
But as Stephanie pointed out in her nude demo post a couple of years back – shape isn’t what counts in a naked protest.
Pic by Liron Almog/Flash 90. The sign at the back, by the way, reads: “The insurance companies strip us naked.”
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