Insurance: Auto v. Health

It occurred to me late last night that there's a fundamental difference between auto insurance and health insurance: if Amanda were a car, she would have been totaled at the first mention of leukemia. Right now I'd have a new wife and Amanda would have been either sent to the crusher or sold at auction.

Granted, with 8 years of depreciation, I might not have gotten a significant settlement, so I might have to settle for a wife with less power and fewer features, but then in the last 8 years, maybe some of the highly desirable features that I specifically optioned are now de rigueur. Maybe the power windows that I paid an additional $500 for are simply a standard feature these days. Heck, my new wife might even have come with XM or HD Radio at no additional cost!

Last year's BMW might be this year's Kia.

But then a fundamental similarity also occurred to me: when the car insurance company totals your car, you have the option of buying it back from them. You get a salvage title, and re-insuring the car is almost impossible, but if you're willing to put in the considerable time and effort, you can get your old beloved jalopy back to running condition and even restore it to pristine showroom shape.

So I'm going to be operating a wife with a salvage title. And while she won't have that new-car smell, I think she's well worth the time and effort to put her back together.