logoalt Hacker News

ben_w01/17/20254 repliesview on HN

As a British citizen by birth, I'm amused by the idea that Americans may get National Insurance for houses before they do for healthcare.


Replies

pclmulqdq01/17/2025

It does seem to be backward. In my opinion, "insurance" is strictly about compensation for loss, and should absolutely be a private transaction, while preventative and emergency systems should probably be public. Healthcare coverage, despite being called "insurance," is really a system of preventative and emergency services, while California's state-run home insurance is the former. But this is what they get for trying to have price controls.

kube-system01/17/2025

We have plenty of national insurance programs, including for both of those... but they're not both free and universal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Flood_Insurance_Progr...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_(United_States)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid

show 1 reply
Alive-in-202501/17/2025

That's a great point. We'll get public insurance for houses only if the legalized bribery paid by existing insurance companies to block public ins. is less effectively applied than the money blocking public health insurance in the US. Old people don't care because they have medicare at 65+, while the rest of us slubs are going along with whatever we can find.

We get what we allow or deserve here in the US. Citizens United led to our current awful outcome.

bdndndndbve01/17/2025

[flagged]

show 1 reply