Insurance companies are strongly incentivized to make the catastrophes they insure against less likely to happen. Car insurance companies are the force for safety engineering in the automotive industry. Property insurance companies audit safes and alarm systems and require that policyholders use good ones. The FDIC is pretty strict about the behavior of its covered banks. Hell, go look at your household appliances and light fixtures - UL is Underwriter's Laboratories.
It makes perfect sense that health insurance companies become the force for healthy lifestyles.
This topic came up for debate recently and the American people chose to stay the course of addressing healthcare through for-profit insurance companies. Why should those companies not act in their self-interest to reduce risk?
> It makes perfect sense that health insurance companies become the force for healthy lifestyles.
Insurance companies are incentivized to promote lifestyles that have less healthcare expenses. This often maps to "healthy lifestyles", but that is not universally true.
> Why should those companies not act in their self-interest to reduce risk?
Because we probably want people to quit smoking and eat better, but those activities cause people to die faster[1], which is cheaper for insurance companies.
It makes perfect sense that health insurance companies become the force for healthy lifestyles.
This topic came up for debate recently and the American people chose to stay the course of addressing healthcare through for-profit insurance companies. Why should those companies not act in their self-interest to reduce risk?