(1) Insurance by definition is the transfer of risk from one party to another for a premium.
(2) If people did not have to get insurance until something catastrophic happened then nobody would and insurance would not be a transfer of risk. it would be the most expensive medical payment system in the world. No healthy people would have it.
(3) They do make a profit, but profit drives efficiency. Without it there is no driver for efficiencies and that is why if you take two identical businesses, one is run by the govt and one is run in the private sector, it costs the private sector 1/3 as much to run it. That si where the profit comes in and why the government should leave more up to the private sector.
(4) You liberals claim that people are just getting kicked off insurance as soon as they get sick, but that is very rare. If insurance companies got a reputation for doing so, then the free market would kick in and nobody would use that insurance company. I know my work would drop a company at the drop of a hat if they found out someone was refused payment for something that should have been covered, or was dropped.
MA high deductible health insurance