Generally insurance is one of the biggest scams. They happily take your money for *years* with the promise of help in the future. when something terrible happens, they find any excuse they can to no pay out. If they have to pay, they drop you or raise your rates going forward. Any industry servicing sectors traditionally supported by insurance (medical, auto body repair, roofing) "price in" this subsidy so consumers don't price shop (its the insurance company's money) so prices are stupid and rise faster than inflation. This drives insurance premiums up faster than everything else. Insurance company profits shouldn't be much higher than "pure interest " since the business model is about extracting the time value of money. But they are typically some of the most profitable companies around. This excess profit is a burden on the productive economy. This is exacerbated by government mandates forcing consumers to have coverage which turns competition on its head making insurance companies try not to be the worst, instead of trying to be the best.