Re: Protocols for Insurance to Maintain Privacy

["John Kelsey" <kelsey@plnet.net>]

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[ To: cypherpunks ## Date: 11/05/97 ##
  Subject: Re: Protocols for Insurance to Maintain Privacy ]

>Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 23:05:16 -0700
>From: Tim May <tcmay@got.net>
>Subject: Re: Protocols for Insurance to Maintain Privacy

>What an insurance card is really a *line of credit*. Or a
>*proof of payment*. The admitting hospital knows they'll at
>least be reimbursed for the initial visit and emergency
>treatment.

>Perhaps there's a business idea for some enterprising
>Cypherpunk. A prepaid hospital card, good for a few days'
>worth of treatment (e.g., $5000), but only at the better
>rates. This could even be done with Chaumian
>privacy-protecting methods. There's an idea.

This seems straightforward enough in principle.  It's just
like a prepaid credit card, or even a normal credit card,
right?  I mean, what it says on the card is probably
different, but the financial arrangements are pretty-much
the same.  I suspect it would be easier to implement this
(at least in the US) as an extra function on a credit card,
rather than as a new kind of insurance, since there are so
many odd insurance regulations out there.  Currently, lots
of credit cards offer special benefits like automatic
insurance on rental cars--this seems like a close variation
on the same idea.

>--Tim May


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   --John Kelsey, Counterpane Systems, kelsey@counterpane.com
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