>In the United States, individual bank accounts are insured by the government to $250k per account.

>The general assumption is that it would require the US government to collapse for your checking account to vanish, in which case you'd probably have larger problems to worry about.

See USSR-Russia transition in 1990-1992 for example.

Accounts didn't vanish, but all people's money where used to cover the deficit

Alas, (effectively) government deposit insurance encourages a lot of risk taking by banks. Which then begets more regulation.

People who essentially want government guarantees for their money should just buy government bonds.