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- Newsgroups: alt.support.big-folks
- Subject: Re: Can they do this?
- Message-ID: <1992Nov6.075259.18960@spdcc.com>
- From: dyer@spdcc.com (Steve Dyer)
- Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 07:52:59 GMT
- References: <1d7sljINN6dg@gap.caltech.edu> <Bx8H83.Au1@akix.uucp>
- Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA
- Lines: 22
-
- In article <Bx8H83.Au1@akix.uucp> sue@akix.uucp (Sue Raul) writes:
- >A) The insurance company is getting away with discrimination
- >by arbitrarily establishing higher rates for fatness,
-
- Whatever the merits of this person's individual situation is,
- it strikes me as a bit silly to describe what insurance companies
- do as "discrimination". Obesity is an independent risk factor
- in evaluating a population's morbidity and mortality. You might
- have to pay higher rates if you're obese (and have a lousy health
- insurance plan.) That's how many insurance companies do business.
- Different risk pools pay different rates.
-
- Personally, I've always belonged to a HMO and the rate setting
- procedure to my employer was never obvious to me. I think it depended
- on the number of claims coming from an organization, and not the
- characteristics of any individual before needing medical care. I've
- had cause to become a non-group member a few times inbetween periods of
- non-self-employment and there's only been a single non-group rate.
-
- --
- Steve Dyer
- dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer
-