PAUL KRUGMAN: “Fire insurance is worthless! After all, there’s no evidence that it prevents fires.” Which, I think, is exactly the point. Fire insurance is not supposed to prevent fires; its purpose is to mitigate the economic consequences of a catastrophic fire, not pay for routine maintenance.

The same should be true of health insurance. It should not be for routine maintenance (health care); it should be for mitigating the economic consequences of catastrophic illness.