How is legally living "off the grid" possible?

[Squirl]

On the subject of insurance; this is what my agent told me.

I can't get insurance without being connected to the electric grid.  Even though I may only heat with wood, an electric system, like baseboard heaters, must be in place.

Makes me wonder if I need insurance. 

Did your agent comment on if you have an offgrid electric system with an automatic propane furnace?

[poppy]

Squirl, no I didn't talk to my agent about off-grid electric and auto. propane heat.

I didn't bring it up because I don't plan to do either.

Leo, my thinking is similar to yours.  My wondering about not needing insurance is related to the cabin only as in your example.

I currently have insurance on everything possible including my life, which of course is really death insurance. 

[Squirl]

My thought pattern is along the same lines.  I think I know how Sardonic is feeling with these questions.  I am going through the same process now and there are almost no direct answers and very little amount of people with direct experience.  Most of the people that I know offgrid did not get a building permit in the first place to worry about it.  That is not always feasible in most areas.  I put a considerable amount of research into the tax and permitting issue and came up with not a whole lot of answers from experience.  The insurance issue I was not as concerned with.  I figured that I would probably be building for less than $20,000 and the amount I would probably pay in insurance I would take the risk.  If I built it once, I hopefully could do it again.

[considerations]

It is, I agree, extremely difficult to "disappear".   Somewhere between mainstream and invisibility, each of us will strike a balance.  Certainly our mainstream culture is set up to make us all dependent on something, even if only that universal bartering unit, money.

IMO insurance is a racket, plain and simple, one pays way too much for way too little.   That being said, it can sure smooth out major road bumps....if it comes through for you.   I'm not insuring the cabin and have no plans to do so....stupid or stubborn or realistic dependent upon your point of view.

Car insurance?  Yes.  I don't see a logical way to wiggle out of that.

Health insurance?  I'd love to have it, but self-employed people with pre-existing conditions don't get breaks, so I live on borrowed time, which is true anyway.