"Insurance" Is A Means Of Spreading Risk

It's funny, well, not really funny, more like maddening, watching a word being misused.

The traditional idea of insurance is that a risk is quantified as to how likely it is, how expensive it may be, and how far into the future it may occur. Then a payment stream is developed to, over time, provide a profit to whoever accepts the obligation to reimburse the insured in case of a loss. This is a 'financial product' that had been used successfully throughout the world for thousands of years.

Now, we talk about health care insurance as if someone, Uncle Sam, I guess, is going to subsidize each person's expenses. I don't get it. If every person's annual health care expenses exceed the premium paid by him/her and/or his employer, where is the profit for the so-called risk-taker?

Obviously, based on their premiums, Medicare and Medicaid aren't really insurance. It seems like people in general want to see that expanded. Which might be OK, but let's not call it 'insurance'.