To the editor: Always conspicuously absent from both the coverage and conversation about escalating insurance costs is the obscene amounts insurance companies spend on advertising their products. (“Got an apartment and need some renters insurance? Be prepared to pay more,” Dec. 27)
Spending hundreds of millions of dollars on multi-millionaire pitchmen to hawk its products while simultaneously raising rates is a clear illustration of greed run amok. The industry’s good-neighbor-slogans belie its intent to fleece its customers at every turn.
Bill Waxman, Simi Valley
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To the editor: State Farm canceled the policy on my Mid-City apartment building after 30 years of coverage. This was after never even filing a claim. The company is apparently getting out of the business of insuring apartment buildings, regardless of location.
Your article on the problems of renters getting apartment coverage was only half of the story. As an owner of a small “mom and pop” building, I was able to get a new policy that cost three times as much as my old one.
Where is the outrage from the state Department of Insurance when a major carrier is declining to do business in the city of Los Angeles and the cost of coverage increases astronomically? I know I will be voting for another insurance commissioner.
Steven Pokress, Santa Monica
