What role do health insurance companies play in helping a society stay healthy?

Could a society exist where there is no such thing as a health insurance company?
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They don't which is why we need health care reform, not a national health care plan. As a society, we are sick. Obesity, smoking, diabetes, high risk pregnancy and other preventable diseases are eating our health care dollars up and yet, doing nothing to cure the problem. This continued bleeding of health care dollars is leaving nothing for those catastrophic diseases that can't be prevented and leaving American citizens to die because they can't afford health care. You can pour all the money you want into taking care of the catastrophic illnesses however, if you don't find a cure for society and those preventable diseases, you will never have enough health care dollars available.
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