The thing you’re buying from an insurance company is “Can you pay me in case of a covered claim?” not “Can you pay me if I need money because something bad happened?” If you buy medical insurance and file a claim because your house burned down, expect not to get money. If you file a claim which falls into the policy exclusions which are briefed at excruciating length and which you had your lawyers review because you are a professional risk manager and know this policy’s value to you is potentially nine figures, expect to not get money.

The reason companies with very intelligent risk managers keep paying Zurich money is that Zurich reliably pays out covered claims, as you would expect from a highly-regulated entity. HN’s incredulity about insurance companies routinely paying out claims staggers the imagination. They’re highly regulated publicly traded companies which denominated claims expenses in (in this case) billions of dollars; that isn’t code for “Psych we actually just bought mountains of cocaine and would have successfully hoodwinked all counterparties, regulators, and courts but for the diligence of Internet commenters.”