• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

When should health insurance cost more for someone?

(Fill in the blank) People should pay more for health insurance if they _________.

  • Total voters
    33

Yes, that's exactly the point. Is that insurance is supposed to spread risk around for the customers. Because even with statistics and probabilities, no one knows how those probabilities can work out. Smokers may on average die sooner or have more health problems, but that doesn't mean the individual who smokes will necessarily realize those consequences. Same with healthy folk. So when we start charging different amounts to different people; we're doing so off of the statistics and applying it to the individual to minimize loss by the company. You're not so much in insurance-ville there anymore. A true insurance game would say "Ok, X people get cancer a year, there are Y people in the population, so that's x/y probability for any one individual to get it. It costs Z to treat, thus we charge everyone some amount which reflects the cost of the procedure and the probability of any one of our clients getting it.".
 
I would have said None
 

How do you define "underweight"? I know many people who would be considered underweight based on BMI, but most of them have naturally very slender frames (nearly all of them are Asian). One of my high school students is very thin, but she eats all the time. She, like others, is just naturally thin. Also, I have seen results of students on underweight people that show that they don't have significantly more health issues than normal weight people unless the weight is a result of anorexia/bulimia, unlike obesity which we know is linked to multiple health issues.
 

Non-medical conditions of bulimia, anorexia, obsessive exercise, a obvious lack of eating. . . to which someone becomes unhealthily underweight - like me when I was in high-school.

But that's actually far less common - most people don't become underweight for non-medical reasons. . . it's more common, though, to be overweight for non-medical reasons. In fact, unlike obesity, I can't think of anyone I've ever known who was emaciated - by choice - everyone had a diagnosed medical condition that lead to it.
 
Having a poor quality diet growing up leads to an emaciated, elongated figure later on too. It's a constitutional thing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…