“Jim Henley”:http://highclearing.com/ has “a post”:http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2009/09/07/9869 that points to and condenses a couple of other posts that I think do a great job articulating the fundamental difference between health insurance and other types of insurance.
I think that understanding that health insurance is a fundamentally different beast from, say, your car insurance is an important part of being able to have a rational conversation about what an appropriate place for the government might (or might not) be.
I *also* think he makes a clear statement of why the individual insurance model doesn’t seem to work; while you may not agree with his conclusion as to the appropriate response, I think he lays out the choices one has clearly and pretty inarguably.