People in the US hear about insurance companies being allowed to sell across state lines -- for medical insurance. It used to be the case that auto insurance was very tightly state regulated, and when those regulations were relaxed prices dropped significantly.

I was recently shocked, shocked that there's a single!!! insurer in my home state that would cover my admittedly handsome abode. Shockingly indeed, though I have not filed a claim in the nearly two decades that I've resided there, and have been paying seemingly ample premiums, they keep raising the price, and surprise, there's no competition.

A quick calculation tells me that over this period I've paid a meaningful percentage of the house's value as premiums. If these were properly invested, as in a whole life insurance policy, I could at some point reach a level where the policy is self sustaining.
-- theircompetitor, Oct 11 2017

Why is there only one insurer? That's weird.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 11 2017


I don't know -- I'm in good old New Jersey, not in Florida or California, either
-- theircompetitor, Oct 11 2017


ha
-- theircompetitor, Oct 11 2017


this is not zoning, this is more utility regulation resulting in monopoly
-- theircompetitor, Oct 11 2017


Is there someone regulating that you need to live in new jersey?
-- bob, Oct 14 2017


I'm curious as to the legal mechanisms which suppress the competition. I mean, if you drove across the border into, say, New York, and there entered into a contract with an insurer based in, say, Zurich, agreed to be governed under the laws of, say, Delaware, with reference to your property in NJ ... then what could your state government do about it?
-- pertinax, Oct 14 2017



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