Insurance and Claims, a guide to what auto, home, disaster, and health cover actually pay when something goes wrong

Insurance gets much harder after the accident than it was at signing. Here we work out, case by case, which policy pays and how much in a given situation.

We cover car accidents and theft, typhoon flooding and fire, what indemnity health plans will actually reimburse, health check-up costs, and how to trace unclaimed benefits - the steps that only become necessary once you are already covered. Rules that differ by country, such as US flood insurance and FEMA aid or flood cover under Japanese fire policies, are set out the same way.

A single clause decides the payout. We show where one policy's cover ends and another's begins, so you can see in advance where a claim is likely to stall.