RE: Life Extension through legislation or the free market

Laws, David (lawsd@magic.dcrt.nih.gov)
Sat, 19 Apr 1997 17:04:44 -0400


Hmm, how about an 'insurance' company set up that takes in payments on a
timed basis (say, quarterly). This money is used for research with enough
investment to provide payments. The members designees are given a payment
if a life extension mechanism is not developed prior to the members death
AND the member does not die of a cause (such as traumatic accident) that
the life extension mechanism could help. I imagine the legal woes are
awesome as the current insurance companies would surely do this if it was
feasible (they want you to pay in as long as possible). I also suppose
there would have to be some age limit put in.

I wonder what would be the minimum to allow such a thing. $25/quarter
would allow $100 million/year if a million folk bought into it ($10
million/year if only 100,000 members). For a 35/15/50 split of
investment/administration/research would this make a fair start? Is
$100/year too much to ask? What would be a reasonable sum? What would be
a valid payment upon natural death? When the life extension became a
reality what would the contributors get ... equal shares/amount invested in
all profits ... or only contributors get the benefits? Also, who/how would
the research be corrobarated, as well as the investments?

10 years with 1 million inital and faithful members would be $500 million
purely for research. What is the minimum amount needed for research?

-David R. Laws
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david_laws@nih.gov
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-----Original Message-----
I was just looking at life insurance and a thought came to me. Would it
be
in the best interests of life insurance companies to pledge support of
life
extension? There are numerous variables to take into account like how
many
people die in accidents and such things that are not related to aging. As
I am not an actuary I would not want to attempt taking all of these
factors
into account. If anyone has any less data intensive ideas that might shed
some light on this possibility I would love to hear them.

Dan Hook
guldann@ix.netcom.com
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