3 ms·

> health data like HR, weight etc is going to be used against me except for bad marketing practices You could pay more for health and life insurance.

techstrategist 8y ago
Or even be refused insurance at any price.
todd8 8y ago
One problem facing insurance companies is the asymmetric information between buyer and seller. Should we be able to keep our age secret when buying life insurance? How about sex or weight? My teenage son is in all likelihood a less safe driver than the average teenage woman, should a woman pay the same for her insurance as the generally more reckless man? With regard to our health information, should we be keeping information from our insurance companies? Would it be right to lie about it? If not then should we hiding it. It seems that in this case we are taking advantage of others that will inevitable have to pay higher premiums to cover costs of those that are less honest about their health. I bought a house recently. The owner didn’t disclose a crack in the slab. They had covered it with a recent floor covering that fooled both me and the inspector. Is that okay? Isn’t this similar to trying to keep a life insuance company from realizing that one has a significant risk say of a heart attack? I don’t like companies collecting data on me, so if Fitbit does this I would hope that there was a way to opt out; nevertheless, I feel that we shouldn’t expect private insurance companies to charge us all the same. This leaves many people in circumstances where insuance would be unobtainable—a big problem where government could play an important role in a just solution.
- hunter2_ 8y ago
  Seems to me like one should pay more for risky things one can control (still smoking, excessive drinking, eating poorly if you can afford to eat well, etc.) but not for things one cannot control (genetics, sex -- insert typical list of protected classes here). And that is super complicated.
  - circlefavshape 8y ago
    Super complicated. For an insurance company collecting verifiable data on things people can control is way harder then collecting data on things they cannot. If everyone wasn't so incredibly uptight about paying a tiny bit more than their fair share all this would be a lot easier. Would it be so awful if we all had to pay a little extra so that a smoker could afford life assurance, or so a young man could afford to insure a car?
- executesorder66 8y ago
  > should a woman pay the same for her insurance as the generally more reckless man Already sexist. Why not say "should a woman pay the same for her insurance as a man"? If you are going to be sexist and agist for the sake of calculating insurance risk factors, you might as well be racist too.
  - todd8 8y ago
    From https://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/teenagers/fatalityfacts/teenagers https://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/teenagers/fatalityfacts/t... “About 2 of every 3 teenagers killed in crashes in 2016 were males.”
    - executesorder66 8y ago
      I'm not disputing any statistics. I'm saying, if it's okay to discriminate based on age and gender (because of stats) then why is it not okay to do the exact same thing with race?

techstrategist 8y ago

Or even be refused insurance at any price.

todd8 8y ago

One problem facing insurance companies is the asymmetric information between buyer and seller. Should we be able to keep our age secret when buying life insurance? How about sex or weight? My teenage son is in all likelihood a less safe driver than the average teenage woman, should a woman pay the same for her insurance as the generally more reckless man? With regard to our health information, should we be keeping information from our insurance companies? Would it be right to lie about it? If not then should we hiding it. It seems that in this case we are taking advantage of others that will inevitable have to pay higher premiums to cover costs of those that are less honest about their health. I bought a house recently. The owner didn’t disclose a crack in the slab. They had covered it with a recent floor covering that fooled both me and the inspector. Is that okay? Isn’t this similar to trying to keep a life insuance company from realizing that one has a significant risk say of a heart attack? I don’t like companies collecting data on me, so if Fitbit does this I would hope that there was a way to opt out; nevertheless, I feel that we shouldn’t expect private insurance companies to charge us all the same. This leaves many people in circumstances where insuance would be unobtainable—a big problem where government could play an important role in a just solution.

hunter2_ 8y ago
Seems to me like one should pay more for risky things one can control (still smoking, excessive drinking, eating poorly if you can afford to eat well, etc.) but not for things one cannot control (genetics, sex -- insert typical list of protected classes here). And that is super complicated.
- circlefavshape 8y ago
  Super complicated. For an insurance company collecting verifiable data on things people can control is way harder then collecting data on things they cannot. If everyone wasn't so incredibly uptight about paying a tiny bit more than their fair share all this would be a lot easier. Would it be so awful if we all had to pay a little extra so that a smoker could afford life assurance, or so a young man could afford to insure a car?
executesorder66 8y ago
> should a woman pay the same for her insurance as the generally more reckless man Already sexist. Why not say "should a woman pay the same for her insurance as a man"? If you are going to be sexist and agist for the sake of calculating insurance risk factors, you might as well be racist too.
- todd8 8y ago
  From https://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/teenagers/fatalityfacts/teenagers https://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/teenagers/fatalityfacts/t... “About 2 of every 3 teenagers killed in crashes in 2016 were males.”
  - executesorder66 8y ago
    I'm not disputing any statistics. I'm saying, if it's okay to discriminate based on age and gender (because of stats) then why is it not okay to do the exact same thing with race?