Tuesday 29 April 2008

And I thought the point of insurance was to make money for insurance companies

Just when you think the debate on whether a foetus is a baby or not couldn't get any more heated someone steps in with a great idea to make themselves some money - insurance for birth defects (e.g. Downs syndrome), ectopic pregnancies, birth complications, and stillbirth.

I heard a woman from the company concerned talking about it on the radio news and she said (I paraphrase) that "insurance exists to help people out when bad things happen."

Gee it must be great workingon the cutting edge of the insurance industry, finding new ways to profit from encouraging people's fears of the highly unlikely. Expectant mothers are a particularly good group to stress out. Congratulations Capitalism, I think this may be a new low.

(Yes, I am grumpy today).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

yeah, 'cause what women need most is yet another message about how scary and dangerous childbirth is.

Violet said...

yeah, what's next? Suing your parents for contributing a congenital disease to your foetus?

Anonymous said...

Why am I not suprised?

Julie said...

Thanks for the comments - Kathryn Ryan did an interview about this on Nine to Noon yesterday morning, which I missed, but one of the email responses to the interview, which she read out later, was typically woman-hating. The emailer was trying to make a case that this type of insurance would encourage women to get pregnant recklessly and abuse their "unborn child" to collect the money from a miscarriage or birth defect.