content: No, it's not. It's risk mitigation by pooling a little money from many people to cover expensive damages/liabilities that are rare but could happen to anyone in the pool. Think of insurance against your house burning down. And that is very useful. The problem is that nowadays the term insurance is often used for financial products, which have nothing to do with insurance, i.e. risk mitigation. Like whole life insurance or health insurance. They are more like financing plans or just plain subsidies. Often because of government requirements, which have nothing to do with actual risk. Think birth control vs. cancer in health "insurance". Birth control is no risk which needs to be mitigated, it's just a subsidy. Cancer, on the other hand, is a rare but catastrophic risk you better get covered.