"insurance is" or "insurances are"

chris2010"Most dental insurances are accepted. "

CB

That sounds very odd to me. Maybe it's okay in other forms of English (I trust CB, so it must be), but in the US, you wouldn't say "insurances."

If you want to say that you accept many types of insurance, then I think you need to say "insurance carriers" or "insurance providers."

Grammar GeekThat sounds very odd to me.

Hi, GG! If you say it sounds odd, I believe you. I thought of the word insurance as an insurance policy when I wrote my reply. I may be wrong but I think insurance is used in that sense in some parts of the Anglo-Saxon world. That definition can be found in Random House Unabridged Dictionary.

Well, you're right, and the hits are for American sites, so it must be more widespread than I'd thought. But it sounds so off to me. Which insurance programs/carriers/policies/networks/etc. would be how I would say it. But... I'm not supreme benevolent dictator of the universe, so I guess "insurances are" will have to live on.

Grammar Geek Which insurance programs/carriers/policies/networks/etc. would be how I would say it.

That's what I, too, learned to say as a schoolboy but my ears have become accustomed to numerous deviations from the rules and usages that my English teacher and professors taught me in school and Helsinki University!