Monday, January 10, 2011

Price Discrimination of women in health insurance?

Would you say that there is price discrimination in the private sector for womens health insurance, if so, what degree would it be? I'm guessing third degree. Obviously the prices are justified by the costs but still need to write a paper on which one it would be.
--------------------
I would argue that there is no price discrimination against women in health care. The insurance costs are calculated by actuaries based upon statistical data which supports the assumption that women incur more health care costs throughout their lifetime. Because women incur more costs, they are more expensive to insure and that additional cost should be reflected in their premium. If you do not adjust for that fact, men would actually be discriminated against because their insurance costs would rise due to the fact that the insurance companies have to compensate for the higher costs of women without being able to charge them a higher premium. Stating that gender discrimination exists in health care is tantamount to saying that poor driver's (driver's with accidents and moving violations) are discriminated against in auto insurance because they pay higher rates or that smoker's are discriminated against by the life insurance industry due to their higher rates. Insurance is a business of statistics. Insurance actuaries and underwriter's have a very difficult job in determining premiums that are affordable and allow the company to collect enough money to pay claims. If actuaries are not allowed to charge higher premiums to people who are a statistically higher risk to insure, then everybody pays the price through higher level premiums, and that's completely unfair to people who are a lower risk. You wouldn't want to pay the same for car insurance as somebody with three at-fault accidents and two DUI's. You wouldn't want to pay the same for life insurance as somebody with a history of heart disease and who smokes three packs a day. Why should a man have to pay as much for health insurance as a woman? I know that I'm making extreme comparisons, and that it's unfair to compare a woman's health care costs to the auto insurance costs of a terrible driver, but I'm just trying to make a point. For the record, men generally pay higher life insurance premiums than women because they have shorter average lifespans. It goes both ways.
Source

No comments:

Post a Comment