> Without health insurance or fire insurance, people have to save up as much money as they can in the case of a catastrophic accident which they probably won't

> Without health insurance or fire insurance, people have to save up as much money as they can in the case of a catastrophic accident which they probably won't have, and possibly declining to spend that money on important things like higher education Some countries have figured some of that out: Distribute the health and education risk between every citizen (it typically achieves a 50% discount vs. privatly insured countries)[0] [0] http://www-tc.pbs.org/prod-media/newshour/photos/2012/10/02/US_spends_much_more_on_health_than_what_might_be_expected_1_slideshow.jpg http://www-tc.pbs.org/prod-media/newshour/photos/2012/10/02/...