Final answer:
Health benefits can turn into health risks through moral hazard when insurance leads to riskier behaviors. Legal protections like GINA help address concerns about discrimination based on health information. Insurance purchasers may not disclose all relevant health risks, challenging insurers.
Step-by-step explanation:
Knowledge about health benefits can become health risks when individuals change their behavior due to the perceived security that health insurance provides. This is known as moral hazard, which occurs when individuals engage in less healthy or more risky behaviors because they have the safety net of insurance. For instance, having health insurance might lead to an increase in habits such as smoking and drinking or a decrease in exercise because individuals are less worried about the financial implications of potential health issues. Moreover, when purchasing insurance, individuals might withhold information about their health history or risky behaviors, such as being a high-risk driver, which can be challenging for insurance companies to uncover. An important legal framework that addresses some related concerns is the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA), which prohibits discrimination based on genetic information by health insurers and employers.