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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHealth Insurers Are Vacuuming Up Details About You -- And It Could Raise Your Rates
Without any public scrutiny, insurers and data brokers are predicting your health costs based on data about things like race, marital status, how much TV you watch, whether you pay your bills on time or even buy plus-size clothing.
Marshall Allen July 17, 5 a.m. EDT
This story was co-published with NPR.
To an outsider, the fancy booths at last months health insurance industry gathering in San Diego arent very compelling. A handful of companies pitching lifestyle data and salespeople touting jargony phrases like social determinants of health.
But dig deeper and the implications of what theyre selling might give many patients pause: 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. Theyre collecting what you post on social media, whether youre 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.
Are you a woman who recently changed your name? You could be newly married and have a pricey pregnancy pending. Or maybe youre stressed and anxious from a recent divorce. That, too, the computer models predict, may run up your medical bills.
Are you a woman whos purchased plus-size clothing? Youre considered at risk of depression. Mental health care can be expensive.
https://www.propublica.org/article/health-insurers-are-vacuuming-up-details-about-you-and-it-could-raise-your-rates
This is just fucked up.......................vote, your privacy is at stake, and the enabling traitor republicans are not going to do anything except get rid of your health care and these cretin's are invading "our" privacy................
https://www.timeanddate.com/countdown/election?p0=263&iso=20181106T12&msg=2018%20Midterm%20Elections
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)think that they know more about me than they should. I am not surprised. They don't come right out and say anything, but they make "suggestions" that make me think they know what I eat, drink, how much I exercise, spend time on the internet, watch videos, etc.
I found it kind of disturbing, but hadn't said anything to anybody about it until this post.
ck4829
(34,977 posts)We can't trust the government to fix this.
Post "I eat baked insects" - How will that affect your rates? And that's going to be in your 'profile' anyway. The more screwy the better.
"I suffer from a terrible disease... a disease called Government Created Killer Nano Robot Infection." - I WANT them to vacuum that up about me.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)If we can convince them that Ins. Co's consider GUN OWNERSHIP to be a major negative on your ass ... that might wake their asses up ...
ck4829
(34,977 posts)Suicide, homicide, if you feel you need a gun you must live in a high crime area, etc.
Plenty of reasons for health insurance companies to raise rates for gun ownership, I think we just need to keep asking the question, maybe go ahead and say it will cause rates to go up.