, 1888-04-20
INSURING THE SICK.
WHAT HAS BEEN DETERMINED Ell
BY VITAL STATISTICS.


Can "A Profit BE Made In Insuring IN
healthy Lives-A Table of Comparative
Observation-Disclosures Expectations
of the Diseased.
The practice of the life insurance COM
panies in insuring only the best ives has
often been the subject of n grim kind of
humor. The people they insure" it is
said, "are those who appear from a medi-
cal examination to stand in no need of in
surance, while those who really do need
it cannot get it." This is not altogether
true, of course. A good many of the
people who can successfully pass the medi-
cal examiners of the insurance companies
stand quite as much in need of insurance
ms those who cannot pass, but it is GER
tainly unfortunate that the latter, who
certainly do stand in need of insurance,
are unable to get it. 1t is not only I'M
fortunate, but seems to be n trifle unjust;
and the question is often seriously asked
why, when the insurance risks are based
On general mortality and not on the NOR
tally among selected lives, the insurance
companies should decline risks upon any
lives but the selected
The answer is, probably, that the in
surance companies are not doing business
on p~hillnthropic principles-though their
solicitors would fain persuade us to the
contrary-but to make money. But even
when the answer has been given the ques-
ton mnS still be asked whether there is
not a profit to be made in insuring inn
paired lives.
THE UNHEALTHY LIFE.
An article in The American Exchange
and Review indicates the possibility that
this question may yet be answered in the
affirmative. 1t points out that while the
unhealthy life is, as n rule, in greater
peril Of death thar the healthy one, the
risk in the case of the former can, in all
probability, be determined with as much
accuracy and safety rs it can in the case
of the latter. This is certainly a reason
able view. The number of years upon
which II healthy man of 20, or 80 or 40,
or any other age, can reasonably expect
70 live, has been ~ascertained by a careful
compilation of vital statistics. What is
to prevent the ascertainment. by a like
careful compilation, of the age to which
an unhealthy or unsound man of 90, 80
or 40, or any other age, may expect to
live?
To a certain small extent, according to
the article referred to, this has been done
by the Institute of Actuaries in London,
England, in constructing a table of com
parative probabilities in the cases of
healthy and diseased lives. The figures,
though not at all conclusive, are very in
teresting, showing side by side the sur
vivorships at 20, 30, 40, 80, 60, ETC., of
10, 900 healthy and 10, 600 diseased lives,
starting at the age of 10. Singularly
enough, at the age of 20 the showing in
the case of the diseased lives is the better,
0,679 of them surviving against 9, 554 of
the healthy lives. From that time for
ward, however, the figures favor the
healthy lives in n gradually increasing
ratio. AT 30 the survivors in the healthy
10000 are 1904 against S,54S in the dis
eased 10000. AT so the healthy side
shows 5,547 survivors and the diseased
only 1889. At SO they are nearly equal,
but the diseased lives have the advantage
by one, showing 26 against % of the
healthy lives.
THEORETICAL EXPECTATIONS.
The Exchange and Review concludes
its article with what it calls a table OF
Theoretical expectations of diseased life, ~
which might more appropriately be called
a hypothetical table, inasmuch as it is not
put forward as even approximately ac-
curate. 1t is useful, however, in the sug-
gestion it furnishes that a table may be
constructed sufficiently accurate for prac-
tical purposes. Whether any of the eX-
listing companies will take up the sugges-
ton is very doubtful. The best of them
are doing quite well enough on their
present basis not to be tempted to embark
in any new field, and it is earnestly to be
hoped that the worst of them, which are
not doing well now, will not injure the
business of insuring impaired lives by
giving it a bad send off.
A fortune, however, awaits the COM
pany, old or new, which shall, with sound
judgment and sufficient capital, enter
upon that business. While the price to
be charged would necessarily be higher
than in the case of healthy lives, the risk,
if the business were conducted on II sound
basis, would probably be no greater. The
cost would probably be less, especially in
the item of commissions or salaries to So
l~icitors, If anything can positively be
predicted as to an utterly untried scheme,
it can be predicted that men of impaired
lives would need much less soliciting to
induce them to insure than the men of
healthy lives do.-Detroit Free Press.