I wouldn't cut out Title insurance, I have two friends for whom it saved low 7 digits each due to fraud in one case and liens in another.
It's incredibly important in today's market and I can't see how you can call it a scam, unless you also view car/health/life insurance as a scam as well, in which case we just disagree:)
This is a scenario that happens more often than you'd think with empty condos and a foreign owner who isn't around to look after their property.
You'd still need title insurance even though you have a "government maintained database"
I'm not saying that the function of title insurance companies would go away, but it would largely be obviated by an accurate single source of truth for land titling, and yes some insurance function that the government could provide for a much smaller fee.
1) The premium to risk cost is astronomical compared to other forms of insurance.
2) The owner's policy really only protects your equity (like if you put down 20%) but costs more or the same as the lender's policy (the other 80%)
Payout rates by insurance type:
title insurance - 1-2%
car insurance - 70-80% (lately close to 100%)
life insurance - 96-98%
homeowners - 60-70%
1) The premium to risk cost is astronomical compared to other forms of insurance.
2) The owner's policy really only protects your equity (like if you put down 20%) but costs more or the same as the lender's policy (the other 80%)
3) 80% of the costs are paid to the agent as a commission
The way it's implemented in the US, it absolutely is.