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Health Insurers Are Vacuuming Up Details About You -- And It Could Raise Your Rates (propublica.org)
schwit1 shares an excerpt from an in-depth report via ProPublica and NPR, which have been investigating for the past year the various tactics the health insurance industry uses to maximize its profits: A future in which everything you do -- the things you buy, the food you eat, the time you spend watching TV -- may help determine how much you pay for health insurance. With little public scrutiny, the health insurance industry has joined forces with data brokers to vacuum up personal details about hundreds of millions of Americans, including, odds are, many readers of this story. The companies are tracking your race, education level, TV habits, marital status, net worth. They're collecting what you post on social media, whether you're behind on your bills, what you order online. Then they feed this information into complicated computer algorithms that spit out predictions about how much your health care could cost them. Patient advocates warn that using unverified, error-prone "lifestyle" data to make medical assumptions could lead insurers to improperly price plans -- for instance raising rates based on false information -- or discriminate against anyone tagged as high cost. And, they say, the use of the data raises thorny questions that should be debated publicly, such as: Should a person's rates be raised because algorithms say they are more likely to run up medical bills? Such questions would be moot in Europe, where a strict law took effect in May that bans trading in personal data.
My employer offers a discount on health insurance for anyone who promises not to smoke, and another discount for anyone who logs their workouts. So we don't all pay the same rate even though we're all in the same pool.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
Go to much of Europe outside the UK, and it's like a breath of fresh air.
(1) No warning signs everywhere, and no attempt to protect people from themselves. 10 year olds walk or take transit to school. Train windows open -- if you stick a hand out, it's your own problem
(2) Fewer nannying restrictions on alcohol
(3) Widely ignored and/or lax drug laws in many countries
(4) Fewer sexual taboos. Nudity/toplessness are much more accepted
(5) Stricter privacy laws. More restrictions on employers -- employers aren't allowed to meddle in private lives outside of work as much.
you'd rather have the government make the rules.
Yes.
You want that heart bypass surgery? No problem, we'll pencil you in for July 6th, 2028.
An absurd exaggeration that flies in the face of actual data from countries with socialized healthcare systems, but absurdity is guaranteed when your argument has nothing of substance to stand on.
Not at all. I worked for several years on a medical office management system that ran in 12 or so countries. My team had members from Canada and the U.K. and they both had horror stories about the "free healthcare" involving their mothers. For the Canadian mom, she was diagnosed with a heart problem and was told to stay in bed until money was available for treatment. She was told that it shouldn't more than six months. The U.K. mom had breast lumps discovered in a checkup and was scheduled for a biopsy. In six months coincidentally. Both moms were brought to the U.S. right away for treatment even though it wasn't "free".
Regarding the medical office system we were working on, as much as a pain in the ass it was dealing with 50 states worth of insurance companies, the Canadian "single payer" system was A LOT harder to deal with. Unbelievably complex rules about who could get what at what age and in what Province depending on the time of year. This was a while back so maybe it's all rainbow farting unicorns now.
Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
No, the babies were beyond hope. "Treatment" would have at best created a brain-dead vegetable. Better to let their bodies die than offer false hope to the parents.
"Insurance companies aren't allowed to raise rates for preexisting conditions so you can just not pay for insurance until you need it..."
Before the Affordable Care act, they didn't have to raise your rates for a pre-existing condition, they would simply refuse to insure you.
I have the t-shirt to prove it.
the problem is pre-existing conditions. The current administration is allowing Texas' challenge to the ACA's pre-existing condition mandate to proceed unchallenged. It is very likely to end with the law being declared unconstitutional (elections have consequences and all that rot).
Prior to the ACA there were multiple instances of people in their 40s, 50s and 60s getting skin cancer and being denied care because they had acne medication when they were teenagers. The justification was that the the "acne" was in fact cancerous lesions.
If you think there's something wrong with that you're right. The only solution is to vote people who support single payer in. The hodge podge system we have now is going to collapse because it is being _made_ to collapse. So long as we don't have healthcare as a basic right someone will take it away for profit..
But the single payer folks now need overwhelming power thanks to our current SCOTUS, which is likely to cry the 10th Amendment on any legislation. We'll need to first get Medicare for All passed and then follow it up with a constitutional amendment guaranteeing all Americans healthcare. Otherwise we'll have to wait 40 years for the SCOTUS to change hands. We've got 45,000 people dying every year for lack of health care. If you're reading this you might be next. We can't wait that long.
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Had they been in the US the tragedy would have unfolded in the same way. An experimental treatment that _may_ have offered an extension on life but which cost most of $1.5 million (in one example that I found).
That the NHS cannot and will not cover every treatment should be obvious. Where that line is drawn will always be tragic.
That these are the worst examples you can find either points to a deliberate attempt to appeal to emotion or the shallowness of your argument.
Obamacare did NOT help the self-employed, if anything it hurt MANY of us.
I previously was able to get insurance with a "high deductible" policy, I think it was maybe $1200 a few years back, and only cost me maybe $75-$100 a month or so. With the "high deductible" coverage I was also qualified to set myself up a HSA (Health savings Account) and fund it to a max of over $3K.
The coverage was quite comprehensive, had low cost meds etc.
After Obama care? I can't afford that type policy, as that it barely exhists, and has been deteriorating each year. I had to drop down in coverage a bit to afford this last one....I pay about $780/mo, for a $1700 deductible....covers not quite as many meds, office fees have increased on what I have to pay for co-pay....but the one saving thing is I can still max out my HSA year after year (unlike FSA's, mine isn't used or lose it, I roll it over every year).
But not only is it more $$...fewer of my Drs on on the network. There are fewer choices in plans....those exchanges don't do fuck-all for anyone making over poverty level...they just aren't there, and it is getting worse.
Obama care was one of the worst things I"ve ever seen happen to healthcare for middle to upper middle income people.....the quicker it is done away with, the better.
IMHO, the ONLY positive thing the federal govt could do for health care, is make it so that medical insurance can be sold over state lines, like car insurance is....let the market back in and make things competitive again.
The only positive things Obamacare did, was remove the pre-existing condition parts that could exclude you from any insurance. That was a positive....but hell, even back before, I had some preexisting conditions, and it didn't make my medical insurance NEARLY as $$$$ as it currently is.....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........