Insurance companies- How do they get people to buy insurance policies?

When an insurance agent talks to me, I'm not comfortable talking about disabilities, surgeries and death. He doesn't know me well enough to be talking to be about such topics (considered quite personal in India).
So how do Insurance companies make money? Their whole model of making money is to sign up lots of people for insurance and pay for a small percentage of the signed up people's costs. But if you have difficulty getting one person to buy your insurance policy, how in God's name do you get thousands to sign up?
Simple:
Give a referral fee! You've done the hard work with one person who bought your policy. Now let him do your hard work for you. He will have a better chance of getting his friend signed up since he knows his friends financial and personal situation, but an insurance agent will try to build a relationship from scratch, try to sell (over sell) his policies,etc.

For every person that signs up for an insurance policy, you pay the referee a percentage so effectively the referee's policy costs are brought down and the insurance company's success ratio goes up.
Makes sense?

Submitted an idea for the Simplicity Challenge (Philips and CNBC TV18 )

I have submitted this idea about CFL (compact fluorescent lamp):

I don't belong to an educational institute, but I am still submitting my idea.
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If we were to let companies advertise on CFLs(by projecting a text onto a wall when the CFL is on), the cost of the CFL can be minimized.

CFLs are better than incandescent bulbs for the environment, but the high cost of CFL lamps is a deterrent for consumers.
Ads on the bulb will minimize the cost of the CFL and this will substantially reduce the energy consumed in homes.
I'm sure you realise the immense business potential this has.


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This contest is actually open only for students, but since I'm not currently a student, I will obviously be disqualified. I want this blog entry to count as evidence for my idea in case some company decides to implement this idea.