Silly Me

winstonwolfe:

jeffmiller:

mikehudack:

The reality is that there are cost differentials on a number of variables. It’s socially acceptable to pass some of those differentials on to consumers, but not others. You can’t charge someone more for health insurance because they’re a woman or because they’re gay. But you can charge smokers more.

Society has decided to make gay people and women protected classes. For all sorts of (mostly good) reasons. Society has decided to make the opposite decision about smokers for all sorts of (mostly good) reasons.

Deal with it.

Mike … if women are being charged more for health insurance premiums, it isn’t because they are women.  It’s because the fact of being a woman carries with it different health risks than the fact of being a man.  This isn’t sexism afoot … it’s a matter of statistics.

When I go to the barber, the sign on the way says that a man’s haircut is $17, while a woman’s is $25.  Again, this isn’t because the barbers hate women (indeed, many of them are women).  It’s because the average woman’s hairstyle requires more work than the average man’s.

When we talk about protected classes, we talk in terms of basic equality of treatment … like “equal pay for equal work.”  We don’t talk about equal pay for unequal work.  This is a huge point.  A barber can charge women more because it’s more costly to service a woman; similarly, an insurer can charge women more where it’s more costly to insure a woman.  Our commitment to equality does not require that we provide services to certain classes as some kind of loss leader.

So will it be okay if the government decides to charge African-American men/women more then Caucasian men/women? What if the entity that sets health care costs, such as premiums for example, deems that being African-American carries different, more serious, health risks?

Slippery slope.

I’m not a fan of the slippery slope argument.

Jeff: what I’m saying is that certain risk premiums for protected classes are shouldered by the entire group equally. This is a decision that we’ve made at a societal level, and one that we’re unlikely to reverse any time soon. You can argue that it’s unfair for one reason or another. Depending on your argument you’d be right.

This doesn’t change the fact that we’ve made this decision. Personally I support this decision. I think it’s unfair to charge women extra premiums because of their sex. I feel similarly about charging gay people extra — and charging gay people extra introduces all sorts of additional problems (people pretending to be straight, leading to worse medical advice, et cetera).

It’s legitimate to charge more for a woman’s haircut. It would also be legitimate to charge more for her health insurance. We’ve simply decided not to do so.

Cite Arrow reblogged from winstonwolfe
  1. sds reblogged this from jeffmiller
  2. tylerhwillis reblogged this from mikehudack and added:
    basically boil down...choice in my book....man or woman,...
  3. robot-heart-politics reblogged this from jeffmiller and added:
    do is automatically...higher insurance premium because you need glasses. And in fact,
  4. krystalgomez reblogged this from winstonwolfe and added:
    Agreed. And I’ve always wondered about the haircut thing. Isn’t there a way to achieve the stated goal more effectively?...
  5. mikehudack reblogged this from caterpillarcowboy and added:
    This is a key example. African Americans...heart disease but are not, to my knowledge,...
  6. mikehudack reblogged this from winstonwolfe and added:
    I’m not a fan of the slippery slope argument. Jeff: what I’m saying is that certain risk premiums for protected classes...
  7. caterpillarcowboy reblogged this from winstonwolfe and added:
    This doesn’t happen already? Aren’t African-Americans more at risk for heart disease? Don’t older people have higher...
  8. jeffmiller reblogged this from robot-heart-politics and added:
    But you agree, at least, that I shouldn’t have to pay for the glasses....But you must...
  9. winstonwolfe reblogged this from jeffmiller and added:
    So will it be okay if the government decides to charge African-American men/women more than Caucasian men/women? What if...
  10. jeffmiller reblogged this from mikehudack and added:
    Mike … if women are being charged more for health insurance premiums, it isn’t because they are women. It’s because the...
  11. laurakelly00 reblogged this from robot-heart-politics and added:
    your insurance premium,...
  12. robot-heart-politics reblogged this from jeffmiller and added:
    You can always choose the less expensive option—glasses....You can always choose the less...
  13. mikehudack reblogged this from jeffmiller and added:
    The reality is that there are cost differentials on a number of variables. It’s socially acceptable to pass some of...
  14. heroicdestinysquad reblogged this from robot-heart-politics
  15. jeffmiller reblogged this from robot-heart-politics and added:
    Why should I have to pay for contact lenses? I didn’t choose to have bad eyesight. Why should I have to pay for...
  16. leeshiebean reblogged this from robot-heart-politics
  17. greaterthanlapsed reblogged this from robot-heart-politics
  18. glennbeckcoco reblogged this from robot-heart-politics
  19. laurakelly00 reblogged this from robot-heart-politics
  20. thatsloverly reblogged this from robot-heart-politics