Slashdot Mirror
Insurance Won't Cover Smartphones, When Pricey Alternatives Exist
consonant writes "The NY Times has an article on insurers refusing to cover cheaper devices such as iPhones and netbooks which may be used by the speech-impaired, and instead requires them to acquire devices that cost from 10 to 20 times as much. The reason? 'Insurance is supposed to cover medical devices, and smartphones or PCs can be used for nonmedical purposes, like playing video games or Web browsing.' From the article: 'For the millions of Americans with A.L.S., Down syndrome, autism, strokes and other speech-impairing conditions, the insurance industry's aversion to covering mainstream devices adds to the challenges they face. Advocates say using an everyday device to communicate can ease the stigma and fear of making the adjustment. At the same time, current policies mean that the government and private insurers may be spending unnecessary dollars on specialty machines.'"
I haven't heard of them eating puppies yet, but that's only because they haven't found a way to monetize it.
I never thought I'd see an article that would refer to the iPhone as "cheap."
Vast numbers of 20-something males have come down with severe pain: 1/3rd of the MM patients are in this demographic according state statistics. Each patient is allowed to grow six plants at one time. However this task can be delegated to a "caregiver". There are now hundred ads filling five pages in our alternative weekly advertising caregivers.
Oh noes, the government! Maybe, if we just blame everything bad on the government, we can go back to a wonderful world with no government! What could go wrong? We should have listened to those cuddly anarchists long ago!
Why was that modded offtopic? Clearly it was going to be about how "how many people suddenly come down with "disabilities" once insurance companies start paying for fancy PDAs and SmartPhones", although I'm not sure that attention deficit disorder is much helped by fancy PDAs and -- oh, look! A butterfly!
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
You can tell I grew up in a country with universal healthcare.
No, but I can tell that you threw in a useless addendum to an otherwise insightful post.
When I have a kid, I want to put him in one of those strollers for twins and then run around the mall looking frantic.
If a doctor signs-off, and says "person X has condition Y" and the policy covers condition Y, then anything that does the job of helping with condition Y should be fair game.
Hey, what are you doing, man, talking sense on /.? Don't you know it is a treasonable offense? Go wash your mouth with soap. Or your keyboard, whatever. Just do it!
I'm a little surprised to hear the iPhone referred to as a "low end" device.
The rest of the summary makes me think what it would be like if the Auto Industry did the same. Isn't that ludicrous? It seems like the cell phone insurance industry should be sued. Insurance is insurance, if I pay to have my device insured -- that exactly what I expect. That's what I pay for.
We don't have sensible health care coverage here. Maybe soon, but not now.
"...And then I had this dream that my whole family was just cartoon characters, and that our success had led to some crazy propaganda network called 'Fox News'."
Best. Simpsons. Quote. Ever. (Though IMHO Fox is a symptom of the problem, not the cause.)
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.