The Discrimination You Cannot Avoid

Missed my point entirely. Why should there be this group thing at all? If it's one person paying for one policy, they should then be judged solely on THEIR specific probabilities...not that of a whole group of strangers. This whole group thing just plays into the hands of the insurance companies at considerable cost to individuals.

Yes, I know one can get individual policies...and pay a hefty premium for the privilege...but why? If they're healthier than the norm, they shouldn't have to pay a premium to get the coverage they want.

It's no more impossible to evaluate the probabilities of an individual than that of a group...but it's not in the insurance company's best interests so they pass that piece of crock pie on to unsuspecting consumers.

Group policies were purportedly instituted to give a break for bulk buying but, in reality, it has just increased costs for those who do not belong to a group or choose to customize their policy purchase to fit their circumstances. It's still a ripoff, no matter how you slice it...and the only ones who benefit are the insurance companies.

I worked in insurance years ago and I can tell you this isn't even half the story...by a looooong shot! The insurance companies are akin to the pharmaceutical companies in that they, because of their big bucks, call the shots regardless of who oversees their regulation. It's a farce...just like the FDA not hearing about any negatives that occur in the course of testing. What a crock!

Sandi Bowman

[Ankesh]

Originally Posted by Sandi Bowman

It's no more impossible to evaluate the probabilities of an individual than that of a group...

Thanks Sandi.

If you can - could you please elaborate on the above? How to evaluate probabilities for individuals?

I don't know much about insurance analysis - but it seems interesting to me.

Because I always thought - with my limited knowledge on the subject that - the bigger the group, the better the prediction / probability.

(In a few multivariate tests I've run online for website analysis - that has been the case. Can't predict if the next click will result in a sale or not. But can predict how many sales will I get in the next 100 clicks. And this prediction gets better as more clicks are tracked. I assumed that it would be the same for insurance too. But as I said - my knowledge on the subject is limited and maybe I missed something...)

Ankesh,

Thanks for adding.

AGE-ISM is NOT about someone's choice - like Agassi keeping on playing. It's about the ATTITUDE of Others as far as AGE is concerned. That people - all people - are judged by their Age - AND - that it is Accepted Without Question.

And it has nothing to do with what is out of the ordinary. There is no ordinary. Older people have ALWAYS been active in all fields. But they are Questioned about it, all the time.

As much as you try to Justify it, and pass it off, it exists as if for its own discriminatory sake. People - everyone - participate in it, and are victims of it.

The only way to end it, is to expose it and call it out whenever it is used - without going overboard as some of the Minority Groups have a tendency to do.

Michael Ross

Hi, Ankesh,

Sorry I took so long to reply but been up and down lately. Let me give your question a shot at least. Understand I am not expert at this and a lot of my knowledge comes about indirectly.

The way it was explained to me was that, in a simple analysis, your greater numbers equal greater validity argument is the way it normally goes. However, when dealing on primary (individual) predictability, one deals with a great many variables. These variables each have statistical significance of varying degrees (and these are closely held secrets by those who deal with such things since it is essentially their stock in trade). Knowing what weight to assign to each variable and then totaling the result gives the answer. There's probably more to it but this is the simplified answer I was given.

How valid the result depends a lot upon the validity of the originating data upon which the variables are determined, the proper formatting of the questions, and the collection methods incorporated.

Hope this helps answer your question.

Sandi Bowman