It Must Be Sexism
The New York Times urges insurance companies to stop gouging women on health insurance.
The insurance industry justifies charging higher premiums on actuarial grounds — that women between the ages of 19 and 55 make greater use of health care services than do men. Women are more likely to take prescription medications on a regular basis, more likely to have chronic conditions requiring ongoing treatment, and their reproductive health needs require them to get regular checkups whether or not they have children. That doesn’t explain why one Missouri company charges 40-year-old women 140 percent more than men; another only 15 percent more.
Insurance companies long ago stopped charging premiums based on race, even though they offered similar actuarial arguments. There are laws against using gender to set rates in employer-based health insurance. Surely it is time to eliminate gender-based premiums in the individual health insurance market as well. Otherwise women, who typically earn less than men, may find themselves priced out of adequate health coverage.
No word yet on whether the Times will urge insurance companies to stop gouging young men with high auto insurance premiums.
The insurance industry justifies charging higher premiums on actuarial grounds — that women between the ages of 19 and 55 make greater use of health care services than do men. Women are more likely to take prescription medications on a regular basis, more likely to have chronic conditions requiring ongoing treatment, and their reproductive health needs require them to get regular checkups whether or not they have children. That doesn’t explain why one Missouri company charges 40-year-old women 140 percent more than men; another only 15 percent more.
Insurance companies long ago stopped charging premiums based on race, even though they offered similar actuarial arguments. There are laws against using gender to set rates in employer-based health insurance. Surely it is time to eliminate gender-based premiums in the individual health insurance market as well. Otherwise women, who typically earn less than men, may find themselves priced out of adequate health coverage.
No word yet on whether the Times will urge insurance companies to stop gouging young men with high auto insurance premiums.
posted by lonely libertarian at 12:28 PM
1 Comments:
So now we hear Obama intends to "bankrupt" the coal industry in America.
I'm sure your take on this is similar to the LA Times and CNN's explanations...McCain supports cap and trade too! and therefore he would like to bankrupt the coal industry as well and this is a non-story.
Well, no. McCain unfortunately does support cap and trade. But McCain does not want to bankrupt coal, there is a difference. Most cap/trade supporters would like to put some price on pollution to offset the perceived external costs and make alternative energies more price competitive. You would price that accordingly...how you do that, I do not know. Again its unfortunate mcccain supports this.
Obama's stated objective is to bankrupt coal plants and therefore would price the permits prohibitively. The pricing of these permits is the key.
Combine that with a reluctance to drill and use nuclear power and you have a serious, near inevitable energy and national security crisis.
Again, McCain's position is unfortunate. But given the inevitability of rising energy prices when the global economy emerges from recession in late 2009ish, how on earth can we afford a democratic congress and a president obama enacting these types of policies!?
The next great crisis after the housing bust is right here in front of us. And we have a party who is about to be in control of our country who wants to completely dismember the US's ability to produce any and all proven energies, while we rely on a coalition of US hating countries internationally to supply us. The leverage they'll have over us will be truly scary.
The seeds of the next energy crisis will be sewn with the election of Obama.
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