lmfao
go rip em off boys
they are a scam

hurc ast

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/11/1094789740089.html?from=storylhs&onecl
ick=true
Community groups angry over insurance profits
By Frank Walker
September 12, 2004
The Sun-Herald

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Community groups are outraged that insurance companies have announced
record profits of almost $2 billion while premiums are still going up
and governments have made it much harder to make a claim.

Australia's major insurers QBE, IAG, Suncorp Metway and Promina crowed
about their staggering boosts in profits as they announced them to
happy shareholders in the past few weeks.

Investors jumped on the insurance joy-ride, pumping share prices up 53
per cent in the past financial year.

New insurer Promina had an 88 per cent profit rise in the first half
of 2004 while Suncorp announced a record $618 million annual profit -
up 60 per cent on 2003. IAG had a record annual profit of $665 million
and QBE had a record profit of $320 million in the first half of 2004.

It was bitter news for hundreds of community groups, cake stall
holders, festival organisers, adventure holiday businesses, hobby
enthusiasts, pony clubs and sports groups forced to close because they
could not afford insurance premiums.

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"They have used the terrorist scare to push up premiums," said Chris
Belle, who ran the small Cooks River Valley Association, which had
tended the abused river since 1923.

The association closed two years ago after it was hit with a $1700
insurance bill.

"I'm sure the shareholders are happy but they aren't the ones who put
up cake stalls at fairs and fetes for the community," said Elaine
Cohen, who helped organise the annual Arncliffe Festival until it
closed when faced with huge insurance bills.

Public liability insurance premiums shot up three years ago after the
collapse of discount insurer HIH and the terrorist attacks of
September 11, 2001.

Many groups could not get insurance at all and some premiums went up
700 per cent, leaving small community groups with insurance bills as
high as $20,000.

To stem the premium crisis, governments changed laws to make it much
harder to claim compensation and damages for injury.

Insurance payouts were capped for personal injury. The insurance
industry would no longer have to pay out millions for outrageous
claims to people who were injured through their own foolishness.

Insurers had it coming and going. They took in more and they paid out
less. Three years on, the insurance industry is still putting up
premiums.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said public
liability premiums in 2004 were expected to rise an average of 4 per
cent.

This is on top of rises of 44 per cent in 2002 and 17 per cent in
2003.

"It's a rip off," NSW Council of Social Service director Gary Moore
said.

"They are making back all the profits they missed out on in the 1990s
when HIH was offering cheap rates. Despite all the legislative changes
there are no guarantees premiums won't continue to go up and up.
Not-for-profit groups were hit particularly hard and it has caused
damage to communities that lost social groups who folded."

Premiums for community groups will rise a maximum of 8 per cent this
year.

Macarthur Disability Services, which helps care for 200 disabled
people in Sydney's south-west, found its insurance suddenly went up
from $3000 to $24,000 this year.

But it's not only in premiums that insurance companies have reaped a
bonanza. They have imposed strict risk-management requirements that
make it very difficult for operators to conduct any activity in which
people might get injured.

Insurance Council of Australia spokesman Rod Frail said public
liability premiums were only a small proportion of the profits made by
insurance companies.

"Insurers are making the first reasonable profits in 10 years. HIH
proved you have to be profitable and strong to stay around and pay
claims."