Gunship,

Actually the idea behind insurance is to manage risk by diversifying it among a large group. Ideally the pool of people would be responsible and have the mutual goal of saving money. Our system is perverted by two factors:
1) Insurers have moved from the mutual model (where policyholders own the company) to for profit stock corporations with no soul to convict and no body to incarcerate. Their only ethos is profit.
2) The medical providers have organized and manipulated our legal system to ensure any threats to their profitability are swiftly dealt with.

Our coming Health Care Reform (Affordable Care Act) failed to even grab the low hanging fruit to manage costs via the marketplace.