Does the United States own a life insurance policy on the president?
Who exactly is the "United States’ and why would they need an insurance policy on the President? If the President dies how does that financially impact the US negatively? The President’s wife may have an insurance policy on the President… just like any wife could have one on her husband.
The purpose of monetary life insurance is to make up for the lost future earnings of a deceased insured person in situations where a dependent with limited financial resources would be seriously screwed without those earnings. Although an insurance policy reduces risk, its expected value is generally less than its cost. With that in mind, how would the taxpayers benefit from taking out a monetary life insurance policy on the POTUS with the US Treasury as the named beneficiary?
My understanding is that the federal government is generally self-insured, to the point of even refusing insurance when shipping packages by UPS/FedEx/USPS[sup]*[/sup]. This saves the taxpayers money over the long run, and the federal government has pockets that are deep enough to cover just about any catastrophic loss. In other words, the federal government is not an entity with limited financial resources in the same way that a widowed stay-at-home mother of three is.
That said, we do pay handsomely to maintain/protect a spare that can be swapped in at a moment’s notice, i.e. the VPOTUS. We try to extract some value from the VPOTUS by having him do odd jobs, but if we knew with absolute certainty that the POTUS would be able to perform his duties for his entire elected term, we could save some money by eliminating the position of VPOTUS. However, a VPOTUS has proven handy from time to time for dealing with the death or incapacitation of a sitting POTUS, and I doubt the position will go away in the foreseeable future.
[sup]*[/sup] You can save money doing this too. Shippers rarely lose/damage packages; over the long haul, selling you an insurance policy makes money for them and costs you money. As long as you can afford to cope with the loss of any given package, you are likely to come out ahead if you decline insurance coverage.
It looks as if the US government has the same philosopy as the British. Even government cars here are not insured as the premiums would outweigh the costs. Palaces like Hampton court which are stuffed with priceless paintings are not insured for the same reason.
However - Money is invested in security (people and tech) to stop anything nasty from happening. It didn’t stop Hampton court or St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle from burning though.
What would be the point of insuring The Whiet House or The Palace of Westminster? Never mind the incumbents.
POTUS is a federal employee, and thus eligible for coverage under Federal Employees’ Group Life Insurance (FEGLI) Program.
That’s why we have a Joe Biden.
In the old days, quite apart from the general pastime of covering one’s spouse, child or grandparents and then knocking them off, it seemed often possible to insure a complete stranger, or a series of events in which one had no direct interest ( such as the putative sinking of a ship ), without questions, almost as gambling.
I presume for a policy on the president they would ponder an application from Vito Genovese more deeply than one from the town eccentric.