Re: Protocols for Insurance to Maintain Privacy

[Rabid Wombat <wombat@mcfeely.bsfs.org>]

No, you die on your 30th birthday, when you ride the carrousel.

The insurance plan would only work if there was a significantly less than 
one-in-a-million chance of having the disease. Otherwise, the cost will 
be more than one dollar. The rates would be lower if you buy your policy 
well in advance, since the disease never strikes before you are 30 - 
there's money to be made on holding your premium, and you jsut might die 
of something else before requiring treatment.

As Tim pointed out, however, if you can be tested prior to obtaining the
insurance, without admitting to it, you would not obtain the insurance
unless the test showed that you had the disease. The price of the policy
would therefore be $1,000,000 or so, with minor adjustments. 

-r.w.

On Thu, 6 Nov 1997, Tim May wrote:

> At 5:03 PM -0700 11/5/97, Adam Back wrote:
> >John Kelsey <kelsey@plnet.net> writes:
> >> Suppose there is some genetic disease that kills its victims on
> >> their 31st birthday, unless they get a $1,000,000 treatment first.
> >> Before I have taken the test for this disease, I have to accept a
> >> certain risk--if I find out I have the disease, I have to raise a
> >> million dollars in the next few months.  After I have taken the test
> >> and gotten back the results, there's no more risk involved (assuming
> >> the test is perfect)--I either have the disease or I don't.
> 
> I want to say one more thing about the example John Kelsey cites here.
> 
> That million dollar disease example is not too compelling to me. For
> starters, there are literally hundreds of millions of persons on the planet
> who are expected to die from various diseases or nutritional deficiencies
> for lack of, not a million dollar treatment, not a $100,000 treatment, not
> even a $1000 treatment...
> 
> No, there are billions who will die early (in childhood, early youth, etc.)
> for want of treatments or supplements costing a few hundred dollars.
> 
> Not that I support forcibly extorting money from those who have it to give
> to these wretches.
> 
> Which means I can honestly tell the "million dollar disease" guy: "I hope
> you saved up a million dollars."
> 
> >> Before the test, though, insurance might be useful--I could
> >> essentially place a bet with someone that I had the disease--I pay
> >> $1, and get a million dollars back if my test comes back
> >> positive--just enough to pay for my treatment.
> >
> >The insurance company would have no financial incentive to take on
> >such risks -- I reckon they'd sooner let the wanna-be customer die.
> >Nasty, but it's reality.
> 
> And underwriters do this all the time. That is, they fine-tune their
> estimates of risks and adjust premiums accordingly.
> 
> If Joe Patient makes a bet on this million dollar disease, but won't let me
> see any test reports, or won't let me test him independently, I as an
> undewriter am going to make the assumption he knows something I don't know.
> And his premium is going to go way, way up.
> 
> --Tim May
> 
> 
> The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
> ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
> Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
> ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
> W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
> Higher Power: 2^2,976,221   | black markets, collapse of governments.
> "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
> 
> 
> 
>