If you own 1000 or more mortgage-free rental houses perhaps you could consider self-insuring.
If that one mortgage-free house is the one you live in, chances are good that it's less painful to pay say 1/500th of the structure's value (don't include the land) per year to insure it and its contents against fire, theft, storm damage, liability, etc, than to take a hit from any of these and have to pay out of pocket. For perspective, property taxes are probably 4-10x more than insurance and you're stuck with those forever.
If that one mortgage-free house is the one you live in, chances are good that it's less painful to pay say 1/500th of the structure's value (don't include the land) per year to insure it and its contents against fire, theft, storm damage, liability, etc, than to take a hit from any of these and have to pay out of pocket. For perspective, property taxes are probably 4-10x more than insurance and you're stuck with those forever.