Killing with a car costs $1.6M, California requires drivers to carry $30K
Posted by mslate 7 hours ago
Comments
Comment by philip1209 5 hours ago
We can correct this by investing in public transportation and getting rid of government-provided free parking.
Comment by soramimo 3 hours ago
Comment by hnburnsy 6 hours ago
The California Low Cost Auto Insurance (CLCA) program provides liability coverage limits of up to $10,000 for bodily injury or death per person, $20,000 per accident, and $3,000 for property damage. This program is designed to help income-eligible residents afford basic auto insurance.
Comment by kube-system 6 hours ago
Comment by lostlogin 6 hours ago
Here in New Zealand you aren’t required to have insurance at all, although every gets healthcare and lost wages paid for (ACC) in cases of injury, which is a kind of insurance.
Comment by mrtesthah 6 hours ago
Here’s a comparison of US public subsidization of the costs of driving, from the same blog:
Comment by rpdillon 6 hours ago
I'm responding to you, because this smacks of the same rhetoric I hear with schools: "Oh, all the non-parents have to subsidize the education of other people's kids?" Well, yes, those kids grow up and deliver your mail or treat your cancer.
Comment by charlieyu1 5 hours ago
Comment by A1kmm 5 hours ago
For example, all Australian states and New Zealand have fuel excise / taxes where some types of fuel used for motor vehicles have significant extra taxes above normal cost. Some Australian states require drivers to pay an annual personal injury levy to a government department per vehicle (usually just shy of AU$1000/year in Victoria, for example), while others require private insurance covering personal injury. New Zealand has an accident compensation scheme that levies people based on the type of work they do (which factors in risk of work-related injury), and Australia (federally) also levies everyone for healthcare based on income and whether they have private insurance.
The main difference from the US is that medical care is socialised rather than the victims of road injuries (who are not necessarily drivers) subsidising drivers.
Comment by jjav 5 hours ago
The larger the group to share the risk and cost, the more efficient it becomes.
If you try to buy health insurance for all your employees as a tiny employer, costs are higher than if some employer with hundreds of thousands of employees seeks to buy the same insurance.
Because that huge employer is sharing the risk of some employee having to get very expensive treatment across all those employees.
You know what is the largest group available? All the citicens of the country in a single insurance plan. That is the point of maximum efficiency (least cost). As a bonus, you can remove all the middlemen of insurance companies, further increasing efficiency.
Comment by charlieyu1 5 hours ago
Comment by what 4 hours ago
I’m fine subsidizing people of a similar risk profile that have a hit by a bus moment. I’m not fine subsidizing the obese and chronically ill.
Comment by deepsun 6 hours ago
Comment by robotnikman 6 hours ago
Comment by porkshoe 5 hours ago
We're on track for an annual deficit that exceeds everything but the 2020/2021 covid era. The politicians of the present are the issue.
It turns out that even broad consumption taxes in the guise of tariffs aren't enough to offset gigantic permanent tax breaks for the wealthiest.
Comment by throw0101a 5 hours ago
Between his first term and his second term to date (2+ more years), Trump is responsible for more that one quarter (29%) of US debt (USD 11.6T / 40T):
* https://time.com/article/2026/08/21/national-debt-trump-bide...
There was a bit of a mitigating circumstance of COVID (for Trump and Biden), which caused the debt to jump for many countries as well (and not just the US), but it's not like Trump et co are helping the math along with all the tax cuts and asking for a US$ >1T military budget.
Comment by theossuary 6 hours ago
Comment by loloquwowndueo 5 hours ago
Comment by expedition32 4 hours ago
And any US hospital administrator will pump that injured foreigner for all he or she's worth. At least the quality of care is decent.
Comment by Gibbon1 6 hours ago
Comment by GenerWork 5 hours ago
Comment by deepsun 6 hours ago
Comment by nrr 5 hours ago
It's true that the National Flood Insurance Program does this, but that's only for flooding (which, admittedly, is a big part of hurricane damage...). Flood coverage is however not a standard rider on homeowner's insurance policy products, and I'm also unsure whether it can ever be. I've only ever seen it offered as an additional policy product.
The concern over pricing below the actuarially fair value is well-placed[0], but I'd urge being precise.
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Comment by cucumber3732842 6 hours ago
More like some the people in Ohio or Maine or Wisconsin pays for both. CA and FL are both natural disaster dense compared to the colder states.
Comment by deepsun 4 hours ago
PS: California, not cyanoacrylate.
Comment by MattGaiser 6 hours ago
Comment by treetalker 6 hours ago
Of course, all that is in the past with the GOP legislature’s big changes to the statutes and DeSantis’s appointment of pro-insurer judges throughout the state.
Now, when Hurricane Paco does tear your roof off; soaks and destroys all your homelab Hoppers; and your insurer denies what should be a no-brainer claim because … well, just because it can, you often have to come out of pocket to pay a lawyer for the lengthy litigation — at precisely the time that you are probably even more cash-strapped than usual.
Comment by quickthrowman 6 hours ago
> Vernon gained infamy in the late 1950s and early 1960s due to the improbably high percentage of residents who made insurance claims for lost limbs, leading to an investigation of whether residents of the city were intentionally dismembering themselves for the insurance money. These insurance claims from Vernon, with a population of 500 to 800, accounted for as many as 2/3 of claims nationally, but there was no way of proving that any particular amputation was deliberate.[9] This led to Vernon being referred to as "nub city" during this period. In 1980, Errol Morris attempted to make a documentary about this phenomenon, but after being threatened by city residents and physically attacked by one, he changed the focus of the film, resulting in the 1981 documentary film Vernon, Florida.
Comment by remusrm 6 hours ago
Comment by delichon 4 hours ago
Comment by philip1209 4 hours ago
Automative insurance has entered the “regulatory capture” stage, which is the highest form of actualization in capitalism.
Comment by graemep 6 hours ago
Comment by quickthrowman 6 hours ago
I’d prefer to be covered at double those amounts in case of some crazy and unlikely scenario like getting in an accident with a G Wagon where the other driver dies. There’s also $40M aggregate of personal injury protection.
Comment by stouset 6 hours ago
Comment by toomuchtodo 6 hours ago
Comment by caminante 5 hours ago
For the parent, an extra 1M umbrella is an extra $2-300/y and covers beyond auto!
Comment by Barrin92 6 hours ago
Comment by Apreche 5 hours ago
Comment by toomuchtodo 6 hours ago
Paying for Driving - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49665196 - September 2026
Comment by jeffbee 6 hours ago
Uh, but not in California, because of 1988's Prop. 103. Telematics for insurance pricing are completely unavailable in California.
Comment by Gibbon1 5 hours ago
Comment by jeffbee 3 hours ago
Comment by mslate 5 hours ago
Comment by bix6 6 hours ago
Comment by encrypted_bird 4 hours ago
Comment by throwworhtthrow 3 hours ago
This article is overflowing with links, numbers, and graphs. When a human writes that densely, it takes effort to incorporate all those details. So the human only does that if each detail contributes to their argument. In this article it's mostly irrelevant. It's LLM filler to pad out an article that really has nothing to say beyond its (also LLM-scented) title.
Comment by bix6 3 hours ago
Comment by throwworhtthrow 5 hours ago
Comment by ekelsen 5 hours ago
Comment by remusrm 6 hours ago