2015 health insurance wants biometric data

mattandlora

My new health insurance requires that I provide biometric data from my doctor, due March 2015, or else I have a higher monthly rate. What sort of data do they want? Well, things that are totally irrelevant in pregnancy, like BMI and waist measurement. There is no pregnancy exemption. WTF. Oh, and I'm due in April, so that should be spectacular. At least I get to check the "currently pregnant" box on the form.

NeonNoon

That's bonkers!

mandyreads

Oh wow. I have never heard of this sort of thing before. If it was for kicks and giggles I'd say wait until the last minute for the measurements.

NicoleWI

Oh my gosh, that's awful. I would fail miserably right now.

mattandlora

Last year I got $100 credit towards my deductible if I jumped through all the hoops and got all the measurements for them. I calculated that it would cost me more than that in time off work + gas mileage + copays so I skipped it. Now it is an extra $200 charge per month to my insurance if I don't do it. Fortunately there's no penalty for the results this year. I'm sure that will change in the future. I need to make sure I'm pregnant if and when that changes so that my results won't count then either. They also want blood pressure, fasting blood glucose, fasting cholesterol, etc. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to rewarding healthy people with lower insurance costs. The only way to do that is to gather this information. But I AM opposed to having a pregnant person do all of it when the results won't matter anyway! What are they going to do? Penalize me because my waist measurement and BMI are too high? Or because my blood pressure is high from the pre-eclampsia which will go away after delivery? Or the gestational diabetes that will go away after delivery? WTF??

cyndi417

My husband works for a health care firm and we have to fill that out as well.  Ours was due by Nov. 7th.  I was able to sign the pregnancy line and not provide any other info.  Bummer that they still made you fill in all of the info!

ewenner

Crazy!  Even though there's not a pregnancy "exception" for filling it out, maybe once you check the box stating that you're pregnant, they will take that into consideration.  

EdenAurora

I just had my screening. Be forewarned that your cholesterol levels will be significantly higher (2-3 times higher). This is normal in second and third trimesters. I'm lucky that our screening doesn't take the results into consideration. If you do the screening you get the discount.

indianaalum

I ran into the same issue. I had to fight to get an exemption for the discount. Blood test weren't going to be accurate, so why waste time doing it

tygraa1

My insurance does it every year and we pay different premiums depending on how we score, if you don't participate you pay the highest premium they have and they check EVERYTHING, including blood sugar (we have to fast 12 hours prior) and they also check liver function...it's crazy bc they even make the spouses, If they are on the employees plan, come in and do the same so if their score sucks, it puts you in a lower tier even if your score is good...anyway, they have a box they check for pregnancy but it doesn't make a difference with the blood test results so it's pointless and completely unfair...

itsmevkb

I actually take great offense to all this kind of thing.  There should be no "reward" for being thinner or punishing people for being what the government or an insurance company feels is less healthy.  Honestly, to me this is public shaming of individuals and we should all be appalled.  Sure, it's easy to judge fat people but in these cases we're also judging entire ethnic races who are more prone to things like high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.  Why is that okay?

What's next?  Are we all going to have to wear a fitbit and if we don't walk 10,000 steps a day we have to pay more?  If you have high cholesterol from bad genetics why is that something to be punished?  Are we going to start charging higher rates for people who do exercise a lot because they are more prone to overuse injuries?  Are we all going to be forced to hand over our DNA and have it tested and if it comes back with the breast cancer gene we get charged more?

They come up with this whole we're just trying to motivate people to be more healthy but that's all bullsh*t.  We all know it's just about money and this ever expanding societal paternalism of we know what's best for you and you can't make your own decisions so we're going to force these things on you.  It's a very bad precedent and road we're heading down.

mattandlora

@itsmevkb - I partially agree with you, but not entirely. If you think about car insurance, people who drive wrecklessly pay more. I think people who treat their bodies wrecklessly should pay higher rates for health insurance BUT not be punished for genetic things. For example, if you have genetically high cholesterol, but you are compliant with treatments, no higher rates. However, if you genetically have high cholesterol and don't give a rat's rear end about treating it, that is a different story.

I use asthma as my own personal example. I have pretty bad asthma, but I take my controller medication and have NEVER been to the ER for it. Compare that to someone who skips doctor's appointments, only sometimes takes their medication, and ends up in the ER every month. I should probably pay more for health insurance than someone without asthma, but not as much as the person who is noncompliant with treatment and costs the medical system thousands more per year.

Aside from my own personal insurance beliefs, my biggest pet peeve with this particular insurance requirement is that everyone knows my results won't matter when I'm pregnant. That means my trip to the doctor is a waste of my time, a waste of the doctor's time, a waste of the lab's time, and a total waste and misuse of medical resources. If insurance is so worried about the bottom line, maybe they shouldn't make exempted people go through all of this crap anyway.

smurf605

I just had mine done. They said that the BMI and waist calc would be skipped since I was pregnant. They did do my blood sugar and cholesterol though.

niknak1208

Yep.  Insurance companies trying to get unhealthy people off their plans. We talk about this ALL the time at work. We have a wellness program here at the hospital where I work.  It's a pain in the ass to be a part of.  Blood draws, measurements ... the whole 9.  You can elect NOT to be a part of it but your premium is literally doubled.  Literally!  So everyone does it because no one wants to pay the high rate.  They haven't declined anyone that I know of but this year they started a 'care coordination' program so that they can try and assist people who have uncontrolled diabetes or untreated asthma.. chronic conditions that they don't care for.  But it's all about the bottom line. We try to say that it's because we care about our staff and we want them to be healthy but the truth is.. we don't want the 'sick' people costing us more money on our health plans.. that's the bottom line.