this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2025
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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.
Why is car insurance so expensive in all the other countries then?
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.
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)
Plus there are things not covered by healthcare, and loss of income etc
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.
Repair costs for two vehicles outside the US is probably just as expensive as a doctor's visit for a single person inside the US.
##ItsAScam
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.