> For health insurers to be profitable, they need young healthy people to have policies and pilfer elderly sick people. That's not true. To be profitable, the

> For health insurers to be profitable, they need young healthy people to have policies and pilfer elderly sick people. That's not true. To be profitable, they need the same thing that every biz needs - more revenues than expenses. You can be profitable insuring any group - you just need to charge members of that group more than it costs to cover them. If you think that any group is being hosed, set up an insurance company that covers them and no one else. Charge them what you think they cost (plus a bit so you're profitable) and steal customers from companies that charge more. If you're right, both you and your customers will benefit significantly. Insurance is a way to reduce variance. However, the value of reducing variance has limits. If price charged to a group significantly exceeds their perceived average costs, they won't pay and will go bare. How much are you willing to subsidize someone else's costs?