What insurance is and what it isn't
Extremely popular misconception. Wrote a decent comment explainer. #################### Commenting on https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-10-15/essential-part-of-obamacare-needs-expanding "if the companies can avoid anyone who might get sick, insurance ceases to be insurance" I find it appalling how 99% of commentators (even presumably math savvy ones like Cathy) don't distinguish insurance from redistribution. So let me recap. Insurance (in a narrow sense) is about dealing with unpredictable risks: if any one of our cars is equally likely to get into accident costing $10K in repairs and the chance for each of us getting into accident is 1%/year, we can each pay 1%*$10K = $100 (+tiny insurance company profit)/year in insurance for the peace of mind. Note $100 is exactly the expected yearly loss from car accident for each of us, so it's not like we're getting a bonanza of free or cheaper repairs: we are still paying our expected costs, but get valuab