• testfactor@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    The biggest thing with auto insurance isn’t covering your car, it’s covering the cost of whatever you hit sueing you.

    Your car may only be worth $3,000, but if you hit a pedestrian and they require a dozen surgeries and are wheelchair bound for life, you bet you’re ass you’re getting sued for a few million in medical costs.

    In a reasonable country, those medical costs would be free, but since they’re not you need some sort of protection against once accident bankrupting you in civil suits.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      In a reasonable country, public insurance would charge your auto insurance to recover costs. The harms and risks of car ownership don’t need further subsidies

      • optional@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        In reasonable countries they do exactly that. The health insurance ensures that your victim gets the required treatment. But they also ensure, that in the end the damages you caused aren’t paid for by the public.

      • testfactor@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        In addition to what everyone else said, property damage is a big part of it as well.

        Let’s say you run into a building and knock out a load bearing wall. Or plough through a business or government office. It’s not impossible to rack up a couple million in damages if you crash bad enough.

      • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Real answer: in most other countries you can be punitively sued, ex: if a person wants to recoup the emotional damages from being crippled. You can also, depending on the country, be made to cover the cost of services provided by the medical system if you were found to be at fault (I don’t know how often that happens for an individual vs. a large company, but that’s how the rates were explained to me by a UK colleague)

      • yobasari@feddit.org
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        2 days ago

        Even in countries with universal health care surgeries aren’t typically free. They are just paid by a public health insurance. That health insurance will pay at first but it will try to get it’s money back from you if you injured somebody.

      • Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        Third party liability for my policy is a few million last time I checked, if you somehow cause a heavy truck to crash or damage a piece of infrastructure you can run into those figures pretty fast.

    • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksM
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      2 days ago

      I never really thought about that before. That’s probably why america hasn’t had healthcare for all, the insurance companies are lobbying (bribing) the shit out of the republicans.

      • Triasha@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Health insurance companies are lobbying the shit out of both parties. Car insurance companies would love universal healthcare. It would drop their outlays which would increase their profits.

      • kata1yst@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        I DETEST both-sides-ism, but yeah actually in this case, both sides are being bribed and blocking true progress, just the paid off Democrats have been doing it more quietly by slow playing and avoiding real single payer solutions when the party actually has power.

    • untorquer@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      It’s in you’re contract how much they’ll pay out for this. $50-$100k is common. After that it’s on you. But you’re right in the sense that law suits often happen to seek this amount.

    • limdaepl@feddit.org
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      2 days ago

      Even in a country with „free“ healthcare, if you are at fault for the accident, your car insurance will have to reimburse the other parties health insurance for their medical costs.