Quote Originally Posted by Cat View Post
Those procedures would have coverage by health insurance.
Yeah anyway, either way it's not gonna be covered by a form of property insurance like car insurance. When a Transformer is injured or wounded then it's a health issue, not a vehicle issue.

If anything, car insurance for Transformers might cover vehicles that they drive - but not themselves.
e.g.: Gunrunner's shell, Roadgrabber's shell, Circuit's Exo-Suit etc. -- but of course, these would all be classified as military vehicles, not civilian vehicles or even ex-military vehicles that civilians collect. I don't know how the Army handles liability for their own automotive vehicles that are currently in service, so I can't even begin to speculate on how that could apply to Cybertronian vehicles.

But another question is... how or why would Cybertronians apply for insurance from humans? First of all, would they even be legally entitled to enter in a contract with an insurance firm? What's to stop a Cybertronian from transporting their vehicle through a space bridge and then claiming it as having been destroyed in combat as a form of insurance fraud? What would Cybertronians use to PAY their premiums? Does NRMA accept payments in Shanix? (I somehow doubt that any stock exchange on Earth would be capable of converting Shanix to Earth currencies) - store Energon reserves? Humans don't really have much need for Energon without the technology to access it, thus it may hold no intrinsic value for fleshlings (unlike say gold reserves).

And look at it from an actuarial POV... precisely how would one calculate the risk factors for Cybertronian health insurance or vehicle insurance?? Aside from being actively involved in an intergalactic civil war that drives the risk up, insurance of course works by sharing the risk... and here's where it can work against the Transformers' favour - first of all, would there be enough Transformers on Earth to bring the cost of premiums down? Secondly, with virtually every Transformer being involved in conflict, it would massively drive the cost of premiums up. Look at the cost of car insurance for under 25 age drivers... a lot of young drivers can drive pretty safely, but the premiums for that age group of drivers is more expensive because there are a notable number of drivers in that age bracket drive recklessly. And each time someone in that group goes and does something stupid and trashes their car, it drives the cost of premiums up. And of course, premiums can go up when you lodge a claim where you're the driver at fault. With life insurance premiums can go up if you partake in certain dangerous activities like extreme sports.

So even IF insurance companies offered insurance products for Transformers, I don't know if it'd be worth it. Might be more efficient for the Transformers to look after themselves... just get Ratchet or First Aid or Fixit to repair them, or Wheeljack to fix up busted vehicles. They can get parts directly from their own sources instead of relying on humans to try to approximate parts from primitive (and most likely very expensive) human technology (even if it were reverse-engineered from Cybertronian technology). I mean, unless that human tech is being designed by someone like Dr. Biggles-Jones...

So... I guess they could take insurance out with COBRA... but then they'd have to endure listening to their broker go on and on about how he "used to be a man!"