This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Monday, April 1st, 2013.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Understanding the purpose of insurance is critical to deciding what it should cover and

what it shouldn't cover.

Megan McCardall is a special correspondent for Newsweek in the Daily Beast.

She says Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

really doesn't seem to understand why we should all prefer to

ensure against cancer and not birth control.

Well, we're always reading the tea leaves a little bit when we ask ourselves what

an official is thinking because of course they often try pretty hard to conceal it.

But given Kathleen Sebelius's recent remarks, you know, I think that it's a little puzzling what she thinks

insurance is. My best guess would be that what she thinks

insurance is for is getting someone else to pay for things that we've deemed to be important.

So for example, a pregnancy. for things that we've deemed to be important.

So for example, a pregnancy.

I mean, I realize that that can have complications

and things like that, but pregnancies are widely expected

to occur.

Exactly.

It's a very predictable event.

My favorite example of this is the birth control mandate.

You know, from my perspective, this is an absolutely ridiculous thing to have insurance cover because insurance is for unexpected events.

...