[bjourne]

That's how it used to be in many European countries. Insurance is an old concept that predates the modern nation state. Problem is that in an unregulated market, private will not keep a big enough buffer to avoid ruination because that hurts profits. In the 19th century a lot of upper class people had such insurances for their businesses which turned out to be worthless because when disaster struck they found that the money wasn't there. Gradually such worthless insurance funds were nationalized and became the foundations of many European welfare systems.