mutant registration story lines

[ratcreature]

After considering my new health insurance card, now upgraded with a photo ID to "prevent fraud" and an RFID chip with the capability to store all sorts of health information in the future as they expand the electronic systems (all totally secure and confidential of course, we are assured), it occurred to me, that in Modern AUs there is no way the government would try to push a mutant id marker directly in the personal government ID or in a separate database.

They would just "improve" the health insurance system to store medically relevant information, include mutations in that, while assuring of course that it was all confidential to health care providers and no way would the government read it or make a central database. But of course with them setting the security standards in the health care laws, they could access and read such information at any time. And since people often just carry their insurance cards with them in their wallets, probably even more so once they'll store emergency information like allergies or special conditions relevant for emergency medicine, like being on blood thinners, and obviously mutations would be put in that category (for safety of patients and medical personnel), all mutants would just carry their RFID chip identification tag on them.

Of course there wouldn't be 100% compliance, because I assume mutants living illegally like Brotherhood members would not sign up for a health insurance, but then they wouldn't voluntarily line up for extra registration either. And most regular mutants would just get their health insurance card like everyone else, even though in advance of implementing such a system some mutant rights activists probably issued dire warnings that X-gene mutations were included as routinely stored health markers, along with genetic diseases or such, but for the majority it probably didn't look like discrimination.

Comments

[neotoma]

Then I'd expect activist and/or Brotherhood mutants to flock to America, because our health insurance system is fractured and it is unremarkable for an adult to be without health insurance. They'd be able to blend into broader society without their medical records following them.

[ratcreature]

Heh. The next pro-health insurance argument: Think about how much we'd save by the reduction in mutant terrorism related costs as by product.

[sholio]

Not health insurance, no, but going off the same idea (a plausible add-on to an existing registration system) what about "mutant" being made a required medical condition that has to be declared on your driver's license? There are already several things like that (corrective lenses and epilepsy come to mind), and nearly everyone here has a driver's license as a standard form of ID, even people who don't generally drive. And I can even imagine the (admittedly somewhat paranoid) arguments that could be made for it (what if they turn into a giant blob/explode/get attacked by supervillains while they're driving???).

Alternatively, I could imagine it being something like selective service -- every male American over the age of 18 has to register for potential military service (it's compulsory) so declaring your mutant status (mutant or non) when you turn 18 isn't actually that much of a leap. Or tie it to your social security number, which follows you everywhere.

But the driver's license thing is really the best slippery-slope equivalent I can think of, especially if there is then a bill passed that makes it impossible to vote without showing a driver's license or equivalent ID (which is also kinda plausible right now).

[ratcreature]

Though I'm not sure they could argue easily for inclusion of all mutations as having an impact on driving. Not even all the flashy/dangerous ones they are concerned about, like for example Wolverine's healing factor and the retractable claws, I don't see how they can say that would impact driving. He's just indestructible, and the claws don't impact his dexterity. I suppose a quick gene test for everyone, and if positive a disclosure of mutation to make sure it does not impact driving, might still be workable though. Certainly more easily than just clamoring for mutant registration.

I imagine car insurances would want to know your mutation too, before they'll insure you. Like a mutation like Magneto's if he ends up in an accident and the metal cars and up crushing someone else, the argument would go that the crushing might not be accidental. I mean, unless there were specific anti-discrimination laws I'm pretty sure all sorts of companies and service providers would want to know before they'd give you a contract.

[sholio]

Ooh, yes, that makes sense to me - a gene test to get your license (kind of like the eye test) and if you have the mutant gene, you have to disclose your mutation so they know if you can safely drive or maybe need a restricted class of license or something (like some people are only allowed to drive during daylight hours).

I can also imagine a similar test being compulsory when you register to vote, because certain mutations could be used to influence people around you or to vote more than once (Charles's powers are a perfect example; so is Mystique's).

Since you can opt out by just not getting a license or whatever, plus everyone, mutant or not, has to take the test, the majority don't really see any problem with it. But in practice you basically have to do it, one way or another, in order to participate fully in society.

And yeah, car insurance and other businesses and such - that makes a lot of sense too! Housing discrimination would probably be a big problem ...

[ratcreature]

Yes, housing would be a problem. The ones with obvious physical mutations would probably face similar to racial discrimination for their looks or maybe people would think that mutants like Toad who have slimy secretions could cause the building to smell or such, but there would be anxiety about mutants who can "pass" with invisible mutations too. Like people would worry that they might have mutations that could damage the building structure if not well controlled, or cause electrical surges, or damage the the sanitary installation because they can spit acid and don't take care to neutralize it before flushing it down the drain and so on. I'm pretty sure in any tight housing market with many applicants for each apartment, landlords would prefer baseline humans as renters to be on the safe side... (ETA: obviously regular humans are capable of destroying their apartments too, and it's likely most mutants would take care not to wreck their place, but that's not how the prejudice and anxiety would go.)

[sholio]

Yes, I agree! On all of it -- I mean, of course a responsible mutant renter isn't going to do anything to damage the property, just like a responsible baseline-human tenant wouldn't. But I can definitely see landlords thinking, "Oh no, I can't rent to those people, there's just no telling what they'll do!" And similarly, some neighbors probably prefer to live next door to regular humans -- prejudice, again, but a lot of landlords might worry about property values going down and such.

[ratcreature]

I bet home and property insurances would all try to get exclusion clauses for mutant-related damages. I mean, like the cases where you have a kid, it manifests and can't control its new mutation and you end up with a hole in your wall and a bunch of broken furniture.

I'm just reading a news article about that controlled WWII bomb explosion in Munich which damaged so many of the surrounding houses, and whether the insurances would cover it, and apparently all the standard household insurances you have to protect for things like fire and explosion damages have clauses to blanket exclude events like wars, revolutions and civil unrest, which I guess makes sense, because obviously it would ruin any insurance company if it insured a ton of people and then the city ends up carpet bombed or such and they all make insurance claims, but apparently this includes delayed damages of weapons too (though apparently some insurances here may cover WWII bomb damages on a goodwill basis despite the war exclusion clause).

But I expect personal liability insurances to be impossible to get for mutants if they don't disclose their mutation or agree to a general mutation caused damage exclusion clause. I mean, the common upper coverage limits would just be too easily reached with so many mutations with destructive potential. Like say a mutant like Scott, no way an insurance would want to cover for his risk of tripping, loosing his glasses and not closing his eyes quick enough or accidentally opening them.

[sholio]

Oh man, yeah, this makes total sense to me! I mean, my insurance has a war/riot exception, despite the fact that this is the unlikeliest of unlikely circumstances in the middle of Alaska. It's also pretty standard for natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, that kind of thing) not to be covered by home insurance in the U.S., so you have to purchase insurance separately for that if you want it. It makes a lot of sense that mutants would be that kind of exception also, and would have a very hard time insuring themselves, or would have to pay higher rates or whatever, even if their particular mutation was not that destructive. (Which goes back to the prejudice thing again -- most people think of "mutants" and think of what they've seen on the news, with bridges being destroyed and whatever, rather than the mutant living next door whose only power is making flowers bloom.)

[ratcreature]

Yes, here certain natural disasters are separate too. Storm damage is usually covered in the standard household insurance, but other "elemental damage" is extra. I'm sure if mutants existed, their damage would be excluded, including cases where they cause previously only natural phenomena, like weather controlling mutants or one that makes sinkholes or such. They'd probably get an extra section, like the one excluding damage from nuclear accidents and radiation now.

True nightmare scenario to get the necessary insurances for: the organizing of a mutants right convention. I remember from being on the committee of (non-powered, heh) gatherings of that kind (nothing very large, just a few hundred people), that you needed to get insurance packages, or places like universities and community centers wouldn't give you rooms, even if someone in the group had contacts and the building owners were sympathetic to whatever project or cause you had. And to offer child care and use a kindergarten over the weekend a whole other kind of extra insurance was needed. And the insurance company would (probably rightly) suspect that attendees of a mutant rights conference would want to demonstrate their mutations, or do workshops on exploring them or the like, and fear for the rooms...

[lilacsigil]

In Australia we have a British-style national health scheme (and you can pay for extra private insurance if you want): you can choose what information can be accessed. Even though all the services are done through the same Medicare number, it can be deidentified so your rural family doctor doesn't have to know about your psychiatrist in the city, your throat surgeon doesn't have to know about your gynaecologist and so on (though you do have to have a referring GP to send you to a specialist, it doesn't have to be your regular GP). And there's very little information recorded on the card itself - just your name (and that of family members if you choose to share a card), your number and the expiry date. Medical professionals can then access your pension card number and your current recorded address - and that's it. Mutants flock to Australia!

[ratcreature]

Yeah, right now the chip here doesn't have a lot of information either, currently just your name, address, insurance number, and they say that it will be voluntary how much you put on there once they will enable the option to put on health information, and that you'd have to give your card and enter a PIN for others to access this, and that it'll all be encrypted and so o n. Only they are planning to put on also emergency information, that obviously accessible to health care providers without your PIN, like your emergency instructions, allergies, organ donor status and such. And I think in a society with mutants with all sorts of flashy powers that can do wacky things, what your mutation is would be grouped with that.

And initially when rolling out the system they'd probably say that you could opt out to have this recorded like that to appease the electronic information security/privacy activists who'd team up with the mutant rights activists, but in practice probably soon enough most mutants would put the information on the card. Probably all sorts of doctors before that had a field on their admittance forms you fill out in their practice where you are asked to fill in information about your mutation, because they can affect treatment (for example I assume all these energy absorbing and converting mutants have trouble to have trouble to have imaging technology used on them), so mutants are already used to giving the information to their doctors, and if handing over the card replaces the hassle of filling out the same kind of form over and over again, many will pick convenience over privacy as long as it doesn't seem nefarious.

And the health data thing done to everybody will look much less nefarious than "we want to register all you mutants" approach.