As many other comments mention, that's not really a fair summary of the McDonald's case. If this were to happen today, you'd go to the hospital who would bill your health insurance. Your health insurance would then ask how you got burned, and would probably sue McDonald's for the medical costs.
Again, as the other comments mention, it's common to have insurance against accidents that prevent you from doing your job. I don't recall having this at startups, but I might not have been paying attention. At big companies, there are short term and long term disability insurance. Depending on what field you're in, you could probably do an office job with one arm. Chording one-hand keyboard, probably up to 85% pre-accident productivity. Things that should keep you up at night are things like "what if I hit my head on a doorway and my brain is damaged to the point that I can't do my office job anymore". While unlikely, having insurance for that is great.
Finally, people can have personal liability insurance (and probably do through their renters or homeowners policies) to cover inadvertently causing financial losses to other people. Say someone comes into your house and your bookshelf falls over on them. It's kind of your fault, so you have insurance for that.
Again, as the other comments mention, it's common to have insurance against accidents that prevent you from doing your job. I don't recall having this at startups, but I might not have been paying attention. At big companies, there are short term and long term disability insurance. Depending on what field you're in, you could probably do an office job with one arm. Chording one-hand keyboard, probably up to 85% pre-accident productivity. Things that should keep you up at night are things like "what if I hit my head on a doorway and my brain is damaged to the point that I can't do my office job anymore". While unlikely, having insurance for that is great.
Finally, people can have personal liability insurance (and probably do through their renters or homeowners policies) to cover inadvertently causing financial losses to other people. Say someone comes into your house and your bookshelf falls over on them. It's kind of your fault, so you have insurance for that.