Insurance and Genetics essays

Insurance and Genetics essays Do you have health insurance? When you go to the doctor do you think about how your insurance gives you coverage? When your pay check is a little short because of your premium are you angry? I would like to discuss with you what is going to happen when genetic testing becomes more widely used. In order to discuss how genetic testing is going to affect the insurance industry we must first discuss how insurance works. I know that there are two sides to every story, so I would also like to discuss the pro's and con's of genetic testing. Hopefully, by the end of this presentation you will better understand why this is such an important topic. First, I would like to talk about how insurance works. According to Risk Management and Insurance, insurance is defined as "a social device in which a group of individuals who transfer risk in order to combine experience, which permits mathematical prediction of losses, and provides for payment of losses from funds contributed by all members who transferred risk." Insurance is based on the uncertainty of life. If you have a risk, then most people tend to want to get rid of the risk, or transfer it. The person who transfers risk is the insured and the one who assumes risk, is the insurer. Once you decide to transfer risk you are put into a pool, or a group in which everyone has the same risk as you. Not everyone in the pool is going to get the disease or ailment but they all pay the same premium to cover the people who do. The premium is based on the amount of risk you have. This is based entirely on history and statistics. This is a topic on the mind of many people who are involved in the industry. It is also an important topic in government. Democrats and civil rights groups favor legislation that would set stringent privacy standards, ban discrimination by insurers and employers, and allow discrimination victims to seek uncappe ...