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by Spivak 3242 days ago
Do you want it to be sold to your insurance company? We see that you're a regular coffee drinker which is correlated with increased risk of heart problems -- here's a rate increase.
3 comments

In general, why should someone's higher risk lifestyle be subsidized by other insurance customers?
This was the insight behind the founding of GEICO, originally the Government Employees Insurance Company. The Goodwins recognized that government employees are more risk averse than the average bear. By writing policies to civil servants only, they could profitably charge lower premiums.

Geico began offering policies to the general public in 1974, so this is historical trivia now.

>Geico began offering policies to the general public in 1974, so this is historical trivia now.

I do recall that they offered a rather significant military discount when I was a soldier. I have wonder if that discount was backed by actuarial data. I would rather expect members of the military to be higher risk than civilians or civil servants.

Risk tolerance is funny in that it’s not always uniform.

The region where I live is heavy in the defense industry. There are lots and lots of veterans here. Federal Acquisition Regulations give preference to veteran-owned small businesses and also to service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses. Despite that, in a town with lots of defense and lots of veterans, there aren’t a whole lot of VOSBs.

A few years ago, the dad of a schoolmate of my son’s retired as an Army Lieutenant Colonel. Even though he as a Ranger performed parachute jumps with weapon in hand into hostile territory, he had lived in post housing all his adult life and had never had a mortgage before. The civilian world and business customs were all foreign to him despite his having interacted closely with the contracting industry for years.

We get used to what we’re exposed to. After being told for years and years to jump out of perfectly good aircraft to go blow up this-or-that target, it becomes not quite so scary. Drop the typical cake eating civilian in that world, and he’s likely wetting his pants. Drop G.I. Joe in the new world of corporate finance, contract vehicles, teaming agreements, and business development, and it can be unsettling too.

My understanding is that the reason is because that's how insurance works.
Kinda. Insurance is about a pooling of risks, that does not mean that every risk level must be in the same pool. Houses that are built in flood-prone areas are forced to be in different insurance pools with higher rates than other houses because the risk profiles are different.
You know what I meant. OP only mentioned undifferentiated "someones."
Undifferentiated? They are specifically labeled as "higher risk".
Just curious, is there proof insurance companies can or do buy purchase histories? And if so, see other reply about universal healthcare.

Also, not to nitpick, but coffee is not linked to increased risk of heart problems, that's a myth.

Maybe we'll get universal healthcare at some point and people will stop rolling out this tired argument.
Okay, how would you like your purchase histories to be used to determine your wealth and companies charge you more for goods and services because they know you can afford to.

"I'm sorry sir, our system says your wealth rating is 600, our discounts only apply to people with 400 or lower."

We already see this with how airlines alter the pricing depending on when the ticket is bought and whatsnot (because if it is bought for a middle of the week trip etc, it is likely to be a business trip).
But the key difference is that applies to everyone who wishes to make that purchase, not just particular people.
This sounds amazing to me :)
You can’t change just one thing. VA For Everyone will increase arguments of “Well I’m on the hook for your healthcare, so I should have a say in whether or not you …”
I live in Canada. Still applies. Just replace health insurance with life insurance, car insurance, or home insurance.
Indeed. Already seeing car insurance being based on age and gender. Because apparently young male drivers are more careless and aggressive in their driving style...