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"Insurance company," "insurance carrier," and "insurer" all refer to the same thing: the organization that accepts risk in exchange for a premium. Before looking at the many specific forms these organizations take, it helps to see the big picture of how they are classified.
The organization that accepts the risk is the insurer. The person or business whose risk is covered is the insured.
Every organization that sells insurance in the United States falls into one of two broad categories: privately owned commercial insurers, or government entities that provide what is commonly called social insurance.
Within the private market, insurers are also described by how many lines of business they write. A company that sells more than one line of insurance — for example, both life and health, or both property and casualty — is a multiline insurer. A company that sells only one line, such as only life insurance, is a monoline insurer.
The rest of this chapter walks through the specific legal and organizational forms private insurers can take, before turning to the role government plays as an insurer in its own right.