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To: Jeff Gordon

Very interesting you should say that about insurance, because it represents a dramatic paradigm shift from the way insurance has been done for more than 200 years.

Insurance has always been about spreading the risk as thin as possible. In any population there's going to be a certain number of people who have their hearts blow out at fifty and another number who live until 90. The ones who live until 90 pay the premiums that pay off for the guy who drops dead at 50. Insurance companies figured out roughly how many of each group existed and set their policies accordingly.

Now, through technology, they are able to say to the guy with the bad ticker, "Hey sorry pal, you're a bad risk. We'll pass on your business."

But what if they crunch the data even more? Some poor slob is sitting at home eating healthy, not smoking, and going to the gym three days a week. But his father, two uncles and a brother all dropped dead at fifty from bad tickers. Genetic predispostion. "Sorry pal, the males in your family drop like flies."

Basically what this is leading up to is a health rating, much like a credit rating and it will effect if people are hired for jobs, get loans, even who they marry, once people start believing in them.


100 posted on 10/02/2005 2:08:51 PM PDT by durasell
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To: durasell
Very interesting you should say that about insurance, because it represents a dramatic paradigm shift from the way insurance has been done for more than 200 years.

You are very wrong about that. Insurance companies have always used personal information to manage risk.

In the 60's I got placed in a national insurance data base because I have EKG that shows a left bundle branch block. Any time I have applied for life or health insurance if I have been "rated." The don't even need to give me a physical. They just look me (and you) up in that data base.

Auto insurance companies of always rated customers by zip code. High crime zip codes cost insurance companies more money thus they charge those customers higher premiums.

Home insurers used to visit the homes of the people they insure. They would change your premiums based up your life style appearance. If you did not take good care of your house, you were a higher risk customer. If your neighbor hood fire hydrant was too far from your house, you were a higher risk customer.

The concept of making the healthy you cover the risk of insuring the risky me is simply a form of socialism. It is a concept adored by the left and abhorrent to the (true) right.

104 posted on 10/02/2005 5:23:49 PM PDT by Jeff Gordon (Lt. Gen. Russel Honore to MSM: "You are stuck on stupid. Over.")
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