Talking a number of people shopping for insurance policy, it emerges that in spite of wide body of information available on the subject; very few of us know what the real importance of insurance is. Indeed, most of us only purchase insurance as a statutory requirement, for instance out of the understanding of the fact that that one cannot drive a car on public roads without insurance – so they purchase the minimum level of insurance coverage required for them to avoid problems with law enforcement officers. Here, one is purchasing insurance not because they really want to access the benefits it confers, but rather because they want to avoid the legal complications they would be sure to face if they were caught driving an uninsured car.

The same situation is noted with regard to other types of insurance, like say insurance for business premises against fire incidents, where many people only purchase it because it is a requirement by many financiers before they can advance credit lines to business-owners who might then have difficulties meeting their obligations should their premises be gutted down. Once again, we have a situation where one is purchasing insurance coverage against fire, not because they really want it or appreciate its importance, but rather just because they have to take such insurance policy before they can have credit lines opened up them.

Apathy towards insurance goes even further (and ironically) to health insurance itself, where many people will simply not take health insurance by themselves, unless they happen to be working for an employer who gives health insurance coverage as a standard benefit to their employees. This situation is highly manifest in the United States, where very few people take health insurance of their own initiative, that is, health insurance that is not employer or state provided.

The truth of the matter regarding insurance, however, is that it is something that is really meant for your own good, and something that you should try to have at least an adequate level of, regardless of your means. Unknown to many of us is the fact that insurance can help us when we are at our most vulnerable. Take a person who has taken just the minimum level of car insurance coverage (which, in most jurisdictions, is limited insurance coverage for injuries one may cause to OTHERS and their property through the car). Now should a person with just this minimum level of car insurance coverage happen to get involved in a bad car insurance where they get injured, they stand to find themselves having to foot their own medical bills, and with no one to compensate them for the loss of their car, in spite of their still having taken up car insurance because out of apathy, they just took the minimum allowable level of it. What is worse here, however, is the fact that due to injuries one sustains from the accident, they may not be in a position to purchase another car due to diminished working capacity, leading to a situation where they have to go through a very difficult time indeed; a situation they could have avoided if only they had taken interest in learning about the real benefits of insurance (beyond avoiding trouble with law) – which would have surely seen them take an adequate level of insurance coverage.

Ultimately, it is important to remember that while there might be other parties who have an interest in your taking up various forms of insurance (like state actors, creditors, employers and so on), perhaps leading to a feeling that taking up insurance is ‘a favor to them’ – the true position is that all types of insurance are meant for your own good, and it is in your best interests to take up adequate levels of coverage.