This sounds a lot like insurance, and effective altruists could indeed insure themselves against a myriad of risks. Unfortunately, this introduces the overhead of an insurance company. (When asking for a ballpark estimate at the insurer I interned at, I was told that at most one-third of all premium money is put back into payment of legitimate claims.) Besides, coverage will never be 100%, an insurer will reject claims whenever possible, and insurance requires monthly payment, which requires stable income.
The overhead of the insurance company isn’t there for fun, it’s because if you don’t have that overhead, the insurance becomes more expensive. If you decide checking claims is too expensive, so instead you’ll just not ever reject claims, I assure you you’re not going to save money. To compare how much money you’d save by (effectively) starting your own insurance company, you need to look at profits, and insurance companies are not particularly profitable.
What are insurance sector companies usual profit margins? The insurance industry’s net margin in 2017 ranged between 3 and 10.5%. Life insurance had the widest range between quarters, from 3% to 9.6%; property and casualty insurance were at 3% to 8%; and health insurance had the narrowest range of 4% to 5.25%.
It’s possible that you could still save money by starting yourself, but my priors say your version sounds cheaper because you’re being overly optimistic. You could probably get someone to take your bet though by asking a company to insure against people asking for their money back, with a clause that if payouts ever exceed x% of payments they can stop paying claims (similar to what would happen if your fund ran out of money).
The overhead of the insurance company isn’t there for fun, it’s because if you don’t have that overhead, the insurance becomes more expensive. If you decide checking claims is too expensive, so instead you’ll just not ever reject claims, I assure you you’re not going to save money. To compare how much money you’d save by (effectively) starting your own insurance company, you need to look at profits, and insurance companies are not particularly profitable.
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/052515/what-usual-profit-margin-company-insurance-sector.asp
It’s possible that you could still save money by starting yourself, but my priors say your version sounds cheaper because you’re being overly optimistic. You could probably get someone to take your bet though by asking a company to insure against people asking for their money back, with a clause that if payouts ever exceed x% of payments they can stop paying claims (similar to what would happen if your fund ran out of money).