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American Homeowners Are One Disaster Away from Losing Everything

28 points by crookedroad44

by shaftway

5 subcomments

I'm insured, but I'm considering dropping insurance for the most likely disaster: earthquakes.
I'm in CA, and even though I'm not on top of an active fault, I'm close enough to be impacted. When the big one gets here, if it's big enough to affect me, then everyone else will be affected. I don't have any reason to expect them to stay solvent if a third of the CA population files for benefits.
I've thought about taking the money I pay for earthquake insurance premiums, and instead putting it on polymarket, betting that an earthquake will happen. If it doesn't, then I'm no worse off than I was paying for insurance. If it does, then polymarket just distributes my "winnings".
Convince me to keep my insurance.

by AFF87

2 subcomments

>The homeowners most exposed to climate-driven disasters are, in many cases, the same ones least likely to have insurance when those disasters arrive.
I wondered whether this is a signal that the insurers don't want to insure for those risks and unsurprisingly there is a Wikipedia page for it! [1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_and_insurance_i...

by p0w3n3d

0 subcomment

This article states that poor people cannot afford insurance. Is this a portal about insurance? Maybe they could help lower the cost for those in need?

by GianFabien

0 subcomment

It would be more useful to determine why insurance premiums are rising faster than almost every other homeowner expense. At the same time noting that insurance companies are making massive profits and squandering millions on executive salaries and advertising.

by abc42

0 subcomment

This applies to us Europeans too, only that the most likely disaster is permanent unemployment, not a health issue. You americans have had practical full employment for decades.
It's all compromises.

by qsera

0 subcomment