Anti-Capitalist Sentiment (with some morality)

[boost]

Blacks are at higher risk for a number of medical ailments. Should we be able to charge them more for healthcare?

How about the poor?

What if we found that statistically, Muslims cost more to insure.

How about people who otherwise fall into a category of low cost insurees, but can be shown through social networking to be friends with predominantly higher cost insurees?

If in principle you think the market should be able to take all of these factors into account, that's fine. But what is the result? Is our society better off, or are you just arbitrarily sticking to a rigid ideology?

[Renton]

Blacks are at higher risk for a number of medical ailments. Should we be able to charge them more for healthcare?

How about the poor?

What if we found that statistically, Muslims cost more to insure.

How about people who otherwise fall into a category of low cost insurees, but can be shown through social networking to be friends with predominantly higher cost insurees?

If in principle you think the market should be able to take all of these factors into account, that's fine. But what is the result? Is our society better off, or are you just arbitrarily sticking to a rigid ideology?

Insurance companies assess risk, that's their job. If they are allowed to compete in a free market, they have to do a pretty good job of assessing risk to be able to compete and keep costs/prices down. If they aren't allowed to assess risk for this reason or another then why even have insurance companies at all? Yes, if blacks have a statistically higher rate of disease and thus are a greater risk, of course they should pay more. Insurance should be more expensive for people who live in dangerous neighborhoods as well, and its unfortunate that those people tend to be poor. Insurance companies aren't responsible for dispensing healthcare to people equally at an equal price. They are responsible for assessing risk, charging premiums based on that risk, and paying out legitimate claims when the unlikely happens.

[Renton]

Is our society better off, or are you just arbitrarily sticking to a rigid ideology?

The problems with healthcare aren't especially because of insurance companies fucking people over, they're systemic within the entire healthcare industry, from doctors to pharmaceuticals on down. Most of these problems would be lessened greatly if there wasn't an AMA or an FDA.

Anyway I'm not trying to stick to a rigid ideology here. As I said, I think obamacare should just be medicare for all. Subsidizing the poor directly is a less market-invasive policy than trying to manipulate every little detail of an incredibly complex industry.