[nolepointer]

Yes, quite helpful, thank you. "True" insurance (car, fire, flood, etc.) makes sense to me, but health insurance is much more complicated. I guess it's point 1 that never made a lot of sense to me. So, I suppose you can put me in the group that considers it a bad idea to use insurance for such purposes.

[harryh]

It's worth noting that #1 and #2 from my list can get kind of mixed together. If you're poor enough maybe an annual doctors checkup is a big expense for you. So maybe government subsidized health insurance should just cover it for you so that small health problems get taken care of before they turn into big problems(1). And once you're bundling this stuff in for poorer people you might as well just bundle it in for everyone.

I'm mostly with you in that I don't necessarily think this is a great idea, but that's the general thinking.

1. Though there is less evidence than you might think that this actually works.