Coronavirus and You - Page 518

On November 23 2021 06:26 JimmiC wrote:

Well hello Stewart!

Individual insurance is calculated with some basic health and demographic questions and then depending on those questions answers they will often ask for lab work or other medicals. So a 25 male 6tf tall, 175 pounds, non smoker with a clean medical history would pay a certain amount and the same but 55 would pay a lot more. A smoker would pay more, someone with a family history of cancer or heart disease would pay more and so on.

On the group side (insurance you get from where you work), it depends on the size of the business, the business would pay either based on their companies past performance or by some metrics the insurance company would have from all similar businesses while taking into account the basics like age of the workers.

Group insurance dollar for dollar is more expensive than individual if someone is healthy because they all pay the same and it has to account for those who are not (nd cheaper for the unhealthy). The big advantage is that it is guaranteed, individual insurance will deem some people "uninsurable" where as group policies cover all employees. If your health is not great when you leave a business you usually have the option to convert the policy to individual which if you are not in good health you should do and if you are you should not, as the premiums are again higher because of negative self selection.

There are people in the insurance companies called actuaries and all they do is go through all the numbers and try to calculate what is the probability of whatever pays the insurance out, so in the case the chances of catching covid, the chances of hospitalization, and then death.



Conversely you could give people a tax refund if they did get vaccinated but for some reason with human psychology rewards do not affect behavior nearly to the degree as negative outcomes like extra cost do. This is why grocery stores charge a nickel or whatever for bags instead of give a discount when you don't take them.

There will also be fines, of up to 1,500 euros, for refusal to take a booster shot, according to Minister for the Constitution Karoline Edtstadler.

On November 24 2021 04:23 andrewlt wrote:


Gotta say that I don't really agree with this. All you're doing is making those people believe in their conspiracy theories even more.

Considering the availability of vaccines in wealthy countries, I think it is time to try the herd immunity strategy that Sweden tried early in the pandemic. Let's call it the fuck the unvaccinated strategy. Just have hospitals tell unvaccinated covid patients to go home and quarantine.

On November 24 2021 08:16 BlackJack wrote:


I remember when the vaccine first came out there were some conspiracy theorists telling me that eventually everyone is going to have to get the vaccine or be fined/imprisoned. Honestly those people are so delusional you're never going to be able to convince them to get the vaccine. I think Austria's approach is the only reasonable approach for those crazy people.

On September 28 2021 05:12 BlackJack wrote:
It's still government encroachment. The government requiring vaccines for public schools is a degree removed from the government requiring vaccines to enter private businesses or be employed by them. Which is another degree removed from the government requiring a vaccine to use public roads or have a mortgage, or whatever else they want to do. I don't think it's logically inconsistent to object to government encroachment just because it's done gradually.

On September 28 2021 05:33 JimmiC wrote:

There is a reason that slippery slope is a logical fallacy.