Hi sparkles3144,

If this is the original sentence that you were given to practice with, then you should know that it's a bit "clunky" and the style does not quite match what you'll see on the Official GMAT.

The sentence describes a 'hypothetical' - IF something occurred (right now), THEN something else WOULD also occur. In this sentence, the verb "had" means "possesses"; it's not a usage of the past-perfect tense.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

In general, you need only match up tenses with conditional sentences.

1st conditional:
If (simple present) then simple future
If something happens then something else will happen
EXAMPLES:
If Barb sells her car, then she will buy a scooter.
If you touch Neil's feet, he will cry.

2nd conditional:
If (simple past) then (clause beginning with would)
If something happened then something would happen
EXAMPLES:
If Barb sold her car, then she would buy a scooter.
If you touched Neil's feet, he would cry.

3rd conditional:
If (past perfect) then (clause beginning with would have)
If something had happened then something would have happened
EXAMPLES:
If Barb had sold her car, then she would have bought a scooter.
If you had touched Neil's feet, he would have cried.

Cheers,
Brent

sparkles3144 wrote:Question: If insurance companies had accurate information, obtainable from genetic tests of the future, then someone who was likely to get ill would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in premium.

In this instance had = possessed

Reworded sentence:
If insurance companies possessed accurate information, obtainable from genetic tests of the future, then someone who was likely to get ill would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in premium.
possessed is simple past [had is simple past too]
This means we have a 2nd conditional (see my post above for the 3 kinds of conditionals)
So, we need would pay

Cheers,
Brent

bonetlobo wrote:
If he had gone to New York for higher studies, he would have done well.

PERFECT!

had gone is past perfect, which means we have a 3rd conditional.
So, the second half (the "then" part) requires would have

Cheers,
Brent