5 ms·

I remember when they banned 23andme in MD, I researched it and it turns out the health insurance companies successfully lobbied against it with the argument tha

I remember when they banned 23andme in MD, I researched it and it turns out the health insurance companies successfully lobbied against it with the argument that information asymmetry may lead to loss of profits. I'm still salty and I think this is part of the same scenario. Having said that, I think Governor Hogan is one of the best governors out there wrt state level response to Covid. Right up there with Newsom and Cuomo.

chimeracoder 6y ago
> Right up there with Newsom and Cuomo. Cuomo cut Medicaid funding by $6 billion during the pandemic. He dragged his feet on issuing a stay-at-home order for a week after the city government had asked for one (the governor has the sole authority to authorize one in NY). San Francisco beat Cuomo to the punch by nearly a week, even though New York had been hit earlier and harder with COVID-19 cases. Cuomo also fought against closing NYC schools even after the city and teachers were already on board with the idea. As a result of New York's sluggish response, community spread of COVID-19 happened much more rapidly than it did in other urbanized areas of the country (most notably San Francisco), so hospitals were already overloaded even before the stay-at-home order had been issued. On top of that, Cuomo also expanded pretrial detention for nonviolent drug offenders during the pandemic, which puts even more people in unnecessary close contact. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/cuomo-has-learned-nothing-from-the-catastrophe-at-rikers.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/cuomo-has-learned-no... As of today, 1 in 1000 New Yorkers who were alive a month ago are now dead. Cuomo might not be the only person responsible for the current situation in New York, but it's clear that things would be better in New York had Cuomo taken action instead of fighting public health officials at every turn.
- tathougies 6y ago
  Yeah, I don't know why people heap praise on Cuomo. Dude dragged his feet compared to Newsom and the California local authorities.
  - renewiltord 6y ago
    Everyone loves a hero. California just kept things under control. No fires to fight = no heroes.
stainforth 6y ago
>information asymmetry may lead to loss of profits. How would this work? You learn of some (useful?) information about your genetics and eat better? And that affects insurance how?
- applecrazy 6y ago
  No, they're worried that patients might find out that they have a genetic disposition to disease X, and increase their level of coverage so that when that disease does come along, the insurance company has to shell out for its treatment.
  - aspenmayer 6y ago
    I think there’s another part in that they hope to know more about your health than you do. In fact it seems like the entire private healthcare system is designed to have more information on patients, caregivers, pharmacists and so on than the patients know about themselves. All of this is so they can write policies that make them the most money for the company while shortchanging your health outcomes and your health care providers. Why else would cost of hypothetical future potentially-avoidable preventive care be a worry to a health insurance company? One would think that such predictable expenses are one of the only sure things in the health care system. They know what most people implicitly know but effectively deny indirectly via ignorant inaction: what you don’t know, can hurt you. The insurance companies also know this.

chimeracoder 6y ago

> Right up there with Newsom and Cuomo. Cuomo cut Medicaid funding by $6 billion during the pandemic. He dragged his feet on issuing a stay-at-home order for a week after the city government had asked for one (the governor has the sole authority to authorize one in NY). San Francisco beat Cuomo to the punch by nearly a week, even though New York had been hit earlier and harder with COVID-19 cases. Cuomo also fought against closing NYC schools even after the city and teachers were already on board with the idea. As a result of New York's sluggish response, community spread of COVID-19 happened much more rapidly than it did in other urbanized areas of the country (most notably San Francisco), so hospitals were already overloaded even before the stay-at-home order had been issued. On top of that, Cuomo also expanded pretrial detention for nonviolent drug offenders during the pandemic, which puts even more people in unnecessary close contact. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/cuomo-has-learned-nothing-from-the-catastrophe-at-rikers.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/04/cuomo-has-learned-no... As of today, 1 in 1000 New Yorkers who were alive a month ago are now dead. Cuomo might not be the only person responsible for the current situation in New York, but it's clear that things would be better in New York had Cuomo taken action instead of fighting public health officials at every turn.

tathougies 6y ago
Yeah, I don't know why people heap praise on Cuomo. Dude dragged his feet compared to Newsom and the California local authorities.
- renewiltord 6y ago
  Everyone loves a hero. California just kept things under control. No fires to fight = no heroes.

stainforth 6y ago

>information asymmetry may lead to loss of profits. How would this work? You learn of some (useful?) information about your genetics and eat better? And that affects insurance how?

applecrazy 6y ago
No, they're worried that patients might find out that they have a genetic disposition to disease X, and increase their level of coverage so that when that disease does come along, the insurance company has to shell out for its treatment.
- aspenmayer 6y ago
  I think there’s another part in that they hope to know more about your health than you do. In fact it seems like the entire private healthcare system is designed to have more information on patients, caregivers, pharmacists and so on than the patients know about themselves. All of this is so they can write policies that make them the most money for the company while shortchanging your health outcomes and your health care providers. Why else would cost of hypothetical future potentially-avoidable preventive care be a worry to a health insurance company? One would think that such predictable expenses are one of the only sure things in the health care system. They know what most people implicitly know but effectively deny indirectly via ignorant inaction: what you don’t know, can hurt you. The insurance companies also know this.