DGS49
Diamond Member
Two people want to purchase a half-million dollar term life insurance policy: one is a 65 year-old, overweight, male smoker, and the other is a 23 year old female professional soccer player. Should their premiums be the same?
A homeowner in Tucson wants to buy flood insurance; a homeowner in New Orleans, having a house of equal value, also wants to buy flood insurance (ignore the impact of Federal subsidies). Should their premiums be the same?
A household with two cars and three teenage boys between the ages of 16 and 19 needs car insurance. Another household - two retired people - own identical cars, and also needs car insurance, same coverage. Should their premiums be the same?
These hypotheticals have obvious answers because people generally understand that insurance providers set their rates according to the "risk profiles" of their customers.
But when the discussion turns to health insurance, somehow these obvious and common-sense principles are supposed to the thrown out the window. It is unfair, we are told, that people in their sixties should pay more for health insurance than people in their 30’s, even though we know that the older people will generally have many times more healthcare expenses than the young people – who in fact may have NO healthcare expenses at all, since many young people never see a doctor for years on end.
Same for people with expensive pre-existing conditions.
Are people just stupid, or so fucking selfish that they refuse to see reality?
A homeowner in Tucson wants to buy flood insurance; a homeowner in New Orleans, having a house of equal value, also wants to buy flood insurance (ignore the impact of Federal subsidies). Should their premiums be the same?
A household with two cars and three teenage boys between the ages of 16 and 19 needs car insurance. Another household - two retired people - own identical cars, and also needs car insurance, same coverage. Should their premiums be the same?
These hypotheticals have obvious answers because people generally understand that insurance providers set their rates according to the "risk profiles" of their customers.
But when the discussion turns to health insurance, somehow these obvious and common-sense principles are supposed to the thrown out the window. It is unfair, we are told, that people in their sixties should pay more for health insurance than people in their 30’s, even though we know that the older people will generally have many times more healthcare expenses than the young people – who in fact may have NO healthcare expenses at all, since many young people never see a doctor for years on end.
Same for people with expensive pre-existing conditions.
Are people just stupid, or so fucking selfish that they refuse to see reality?