Insurance companies, it seems, are increasingly risk-averse these days. No surprise to anyone who’s seen his or her car insurance premium go up after a claim or two, or to the parents of teenage drivers, or to anyone who has paid a health insurance premium lately – but at the end of the day it does seem curious that those risk-takers who underwrite insurance policies are so reluctant to take on customers who might cost them money.
But the insurance business is a lot more than premiums and claims – it’s deep into the stock market, and the losses of the past two years have taken a heavy toll on the insurance companies’ balance sheets. And so we get to island property-owners, a tiny class of insurance policy-holders whose circumstances – isolated, far from fire departments, seemingly vulnerable to thieves, vandals and other potential calamities – make them an easy target for (a) a rate increase or (b) outright cancellation. As islanders so often tend to be in our society, they’re at the end of the line. Someone far away decides it’s time to make the numbers look better, and guess whose insurance policies get canceled!
Of course island life isn’t any more dangerous than it was a year ago (it’s probably safer than on the mainland, in fact), and the likelihood of an expensive claim isn’t demonstrably greater on an island than it is on the mainland. The distance to the local fire department hasn’t grown. But once again, outside forces are working against islanders and their communities. It’s enough to make you paranoid, isn’t it?