Cancer survivors want the right to be forgotten when it comes to mortgages and life insurance

[TomEdison]

Ok, interesting. It makes the point that the question of which risks we wish to pool accross the entire community is ultimately a societal choice. If we tell insurers to quote without reference to gender, or without reference to specified medical issues, they can do that. It's just a question of us deciding which risks we want to pool.

 

[ClubMan]

If we tell insurers to quote without reference to gender, or without reference to specified medical issues, they can do that.

That's effectively what we do with community rating in health insurance and why I, as a late 50s male, pay for maternity cover that I'm certain not to benefit from.

 

[Steven Barrett]

Are mortgage protection policies priced without reference to the policyholder's gender?

(Genuine question. I don't know the answer to this.)

Any personally paid protection policy is gender neutral. If it is paid for by a company, they can discriminate on gender. Company paid income protection being the obvious example.

 

[TomEdison]

That's effectively what we do with community rating in health insurance and why I, as a late 50s male, pay for maternity cover that I'm certain not to benefit from.

Yeah, but that's not a fundamentally new thing. After all, late 50s females have always paid for maternity cover that they are certain not to benefit from.

 

[Purple]

I'm against community rated health insurance. I do think that we should community rate it based on age but not lifestyle. Maybe higher health insurance costs due to lifestyle would remove some of the moral hazard that our healthcare system and community rated health insurance creates and encourage more people to take better care of themselves.

I'm also against the current proposal even though it would benefit me greatly (currently my other half has breast cancer and can't get on the mortgage).

Insurance is based on risk. If you're a higher risk you should pay a higher premium. If we community rate mortgage insurance and health insurance why don't we community rate car insurance? For most people a car is more of an essential than home ownership.