> Scott wrote: > > But weren't you the one who was schooling us that we 'sell risk' to > insurance companies? > How is the risk any different if you are genetically predisposed for a > disease or if you make life choices that might lead to the same disease? > > Risk is risk, regardless of what drives that risk.
Certainly true, but risk is calculated and for insurance is associated with a base rate, and then the premium is increased based on risks of choice. For example, if you buy car insurance you have a risk of getting into an accident simply because you're on the road. I have a predisposition to speed and drive insane. My wife does not. Given no accidents our premiums will be based on the base rate plus an adjustment for age (which is still the adjusted base rate) NOT on any predispositions - this is aggregated across all drivers. >From there my premium will be adjusted based on choice: get an Audi S4? I pay more. (not to mention the luxury tax and the gas guzzler tax. boo.) Get tickets? I pay more. And now here's the tricky one: get in accidents? I pay more. Especially if I get in a few in a row. Why? Because the assumption is that I'm putting myself into bad situations ... I'm differentiating myself from the population as a whole. At some point I will simply no longer be able to buy insurance. Health insurance should be no different. Speeding tickets are metrics of bad choices. Blood lipids are metrics of bad choices. Premiums should be adjusted accordingly. At some point my predispositions combined with my choices may get me in so many accidents that I can't buy insurance. At some point my predispositions combined with my choices may get me so unhealthy that I can't buy insurance. This is what Medicaid & Medicare should be for. These should be the so-called "public option"; basically a welfare-type program. Which, by the way, should be the same for Social Security: eliminate that program and simply create a welfare program in it's place. Both systems would be way more fair. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:298750 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
