I cannot find any reason why this is not a widespread thing. It comes down to the simple premise that nobody sets fire to or otherwise deliberately damage their own home. All insurance does is return it to its prior state, but with lots of paperwork, delays and annoyances.

Those that do not get house insurance, typically it is because they cannot afford it versus other things like food and electricity, so they take a gamble. They need help. Everyone else, well the value of the house is probably vaguely connected to what you earn, so increasing taxes by 0.05% would cover everyone’s insurance. Whatever the figure, it will be low. The net result will be the same – what you save from insurance you pay for in tax – but we cut out the middlemen and “loss adjusters”.

Hand in hand with this comes preventive measures, like making sure roofs are well attached. This interesting paper goes in depth about how housing resilience agencies (HRAs) would work. The state will spend on fixing up homes proportional to the risk and cost of bailing them out. Everybody wins. And it is a great election bribe.