Islam Bans Health Insurance?

Where it prevails, Islamic law invades every aspect of life. Now, one Islamic group has declared health insurance forbidden. The Economic Times reports (via WeStandFirm):

Comparing the benefits of health insurance policy to gambling, key Islamic organisations have termed the policies as "illegal" and directed Muslims to keep away from them.

At a seminar to deliberate whether insuring health was permissible under Islamic law Shariat, the Islamic Fiqh Academy (India) decided that availing such policies was illegal. ...

Health insurance schemes have turned a noble service in to a business activity, hence under Islam it is not permitted, they said. ...

The Ulema suggested that the community could itself organise services to help in the treatment of poor.

There is one exception: if insurance is forced through "legal constraints" (like what?), then a person might be able to get away with having insurance, so long as one spends "the left-over amount... on some form of service to Allah." (Why would there be a "left-over amount?" Isn't health insurance supposed to cover health costs?)

This is the sort of thing that happens when religious dogmatists run things. Nevermind that their views are absurd. Insurance is not remotely like gambling; the point of it is to pool resources to cover the expenses of those who happen to suffer high-cost health problems. If that's gambling, then life is a gamble (but don't tell these Islamists!). Note the socialist presumptions of the Islamists, who define business activities as ignoble. The line about helping the poor is off point; health insurance enables the middle class to avoid poverty. But poverty must be a central concern of such Islamists, as they perpetuate it through their anti-reason, anti-liberty controls.