The roots of this particular action by insurance companies are murky but at its heart, I would argue, probably lies two things. The first, I would argue, is an inherent inequality of relationships between insurers and insureds – more on this later. And, the second derives from the fundamentals of one of the lesser-known arguments by the philosopher John Rawls. Rawls is certainly better known for the classic ‘A Theory of Justice’ and his ‘difference principles’, which he posits as superior to utilitarianism, and an improvement on Kantianism: of that and how it relates to insurance is a subject for another time. This actually reminds me, being myself of ‘Kantian’ bent and a particularly fervent proponent of his ‘categorical imperative’ notion, once years ago being in a heated argument with a fiendishly clever friend of mine on the merits of Immanuel Kant vs. John Rawls. The ensuing debate despite being fierce with strongly put forward arguments resulted in little movement by both of us. This I rather suspect was due our own deeply ingrained deontological positions. Incidentally, on later reflection, something that should have occurred to both of us at the time is that Rawls’ construction of the notion of social contract was actually a more ‘Kantian’ rather than utilitarian approach, which meant that we are much closer in reality than we realised at the time. But I digress…