Insurance Everywhere (December 13, 2005)

Switzerland, or at least Vaud, seems to be the land of insurance.

Everyone is required to buy themself basic health insurance, whereas the insurance companies must accept all comers and charge them the same rates. It's a neat setup, in my opinion. It accomplishes society-wide redistribution for basic health care--i.e., healthy people paying for unfortunate unhealthy people--while keeping the prices at a sane, self-funding level and avoiding the moral hazard of having governments promise ever-more benefits without figuring out how to pay for them.

But that's only the beginning. People are also legally required to have:

• personal liability insurance ("RC insurance")
• something like renter's insurance, covering the risk of things like fire and flood.
• accident insurance--which your employer must give you, if you are employed.
• insurance against default of rent (assuming that you do not opt for the alternative of paying 3 months of deposit up front).