Under a self-insured plan, your organization assumes the financial risk for providing health benefits to your employees. In practical terms, self-insured employers pay for claims out-of-pocket as they are presented instead of paying a pre-determined premium to an insurance carrier for a fully insured plan. Typically, a self-insured employer will set up a special trust fund to earmark money (corporate and employee contributions) to pay incurred claims... [333 word article, January 2011]