Interesting post from Dr. Greg Mankiw on the ramifications of being able to genetically test for longevity. If insurance companies can't use those tests to set prices but individuals can use the test to set up a financial strategy...
(1)People who are going to croak early will tend to buy life insurance. People who are expected to live longer lives will be better off to invest the money. That adverse selection will tend to raise life insurance prices, as the insurance poll will start to skew to quick-dies.
(2) Lifetime annuities will be taken out by the people with longer lives. That will tend to lower the interest rates on those annuities.
(3) If one person in a couple is slated to live longer than the other, they can aim pensions to the life of the long-lived pair.
(4) Social Security would see the quick-dies take their payments at 62, while longer-lived folks will hold out longer.
Those adverse selections will skew insurance towards the price of the sickly and skew retirement products towards the long-lived.
That is going to be a problem with health insurance going forward, where the sickly will tend to buy insurance, especially if companies can't charge extra for having a poor health history or block coverage of preexisting condition. The price of health insurance will skew towards the cost of the sickly patient and thus drive up the price.
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