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I mention the insurance risk in my post. Yes, I do think insurance companies will try to use this data. I don't see how to avoid it though. It seems to me that
by mcculley 8y ago
I mention the insurance risk in my post. Yes, I do think insurance companies will try to use this data. I don't see how to avoid it though. It seems to me that it is inevitable that they will get my DNA at some point. That said, I buy insurance for the unknown risks. If I had a known condition, I would expect that to be factored into the price.
- mattnewton 8y ago“The insurance companies will eventually win this from us” is different from it currently being required. I will read your post but I don’t buy the inevitability that they will win over reasonable privacy rights. Insurance only works as a system for society if the risk is spread among many parties, but if the insurance companies know the risk ahead of time it ceases to subsidize the unfortunate, who are left out in the cold (taxpayer funded programs and hospital ERS)
- mcculley 8y agoI don't think it is just insurance companies who will eventually win. I think everyone will have everybody's DNA. People who have serious disabilities should be supported by taxpayer funded programs, in my opinion.
- mattnewton 8y agoThen the taxpayer should be capturing all the value the insurance companies provide. If they are only insuring the wealthy and healthy and the government pays for the rest, that’s a rather raw deal for the taxpayer. Also I hope you never have my DNA. I can’t think of a reason why you should, and for one possible exercise on why you shouldn’t, please watch Gattaca.
- mcculley 8y agoI actually think that basic health care should be covered by taxpayers and we should not have private insurance companies profiting in that space. As for your DNA: Do you take the precautions of the protagonist in Gattaca? How do you avoid leaving DNA samples in public places? How long before drones/bots/Roombas are hoovering this up at the behest of some VC?
- whatshisface 8y ago>I actually think that basic health care should be covered by taxpayers and we should not have private insurance companies profiting in that space. What happens when someone gets their genetic information released in a country with public healthcare, and then moves to a country with private healthcare?
- mcculley 8y agoI expect that to be an adverse and inevitable outcome.
- mattnewton 8y agoIt sounds like we are in violent agreement then: if insurance companies are allowed to exist the way they do today, they can’t have access to all the information. I like your solution to the dilemma of just not having private insurance companies :D Re DNA precautions: We just need to make hovering up DNA illegal, or selling insurance, or selling anything based on the genetic information gathered from people; make it all illegal, so I don’t have to worry about it in the same way I don’t have to worry about insurance companies breaking into my house to spy on me.
- mcculley 8y agoI don't see how making collection of DNA data illegal could be enforced. It seems inevitable to me that such data will be widely available.
- madspindel 8y agoLiving in Sweden, this sounds like a US Only problem. Maybe the solution is tax-funded health care and let corporations do great things with the technology?
- mattnewton 8y agoI buy that my concerns are colored by living in the US, but I actually cannot think of anyone other than my doctors who I want to know one base pair of my genetic code if it can ever be attached to my name. What are they possibly going to do with that information to benefit me? Insurance optimizations? Drug marketing? No thanks. I’d make an exception for science if and only if it’s full deanonymized and controlled by a nonprofit third party entity.