Self-insurance is a situation in which a person or business does not take out any third-party insurance, but rather a business that is liable for some risk, such as health costs, chooses to bear the risk itself rather than take out insurance through an insurance company.
In the United States the concept applies especially to self-funded health care and may involve, for example, an employer providing certain benefits – generally health benefits or disability benefits – to employees and funding claims from a specified pool of assets rather than through an insurance company, as the term is traditionally used. In self-funded health care, the employer ultimately retains the full risk of paying claims, in contrast to traditional insurance, where all risk is transferred to the insurer.