Is "discrimination" a bad thing and should be made illegal in everything?

Like life insurance for example, where do they get off asking if I smoke or not, my age, use illegal drugs, have a criminal record for a weapons charge, terminal stage 5 cancer, personal stuff like that. Hey we are told lately that everybody in the USA is exactly equal, so why the questions? What next, am I black, gay, ETC.? Where is the equality in all those questions? Only question should be only "Are you alive?". Yes sounds stupid, but everyone of the above mentioned have a group calling those question "discriminatory".