Insurance Companies (Long)

Well, it's happened with us. Rick's insurance company at work is making employees (and spouses) participate in annual health screening. He's been participating....it's not necessarily a bad thing as it helps him to know where he's at for cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. I did it once when they offered it on a Saturday morning.

But now, we both have to participate. No choice. If we don't, we pay a penalty premium. They will have weekend health screenings and also offer screenings in various locations for people to attend.

They will be looking at:

Blood pressure

Bad cholesterol

High blood sugar

Triglycerides

Tobacco usage

It starts this year, which gives employees a base line look at those 5 items. Then the employee has to maintain (if everything is within limits) or improve those items by the screening in 2014. By 2015, everybody is expected to meet the requirements in order to qualify for Healthy Premium Rates in 2016. If an employee cannot meet those standards, s/he must have a letter from their doctor explaining why they cannot do so. If the employee can prove that s/he is working toward those goals, they may be considered qualified anyway.

While his work does not know the information from a particular employee (so they say), they have enough information to know that employees as a whole just aren't doing much to take care of themselves.

Employees and spouses who do not meet the standards will have to pay higher premiums for their work insurance. There are already people at his work who are paying a higher premium because they smoke and have no intentions of quitting.

While Rick does have high cholesterol, his bad cholesterol and his triglycerides are always well within spec, so it's not a problem, as long as he can keep them that way. I do have high blood pressure, even with the Bystolic (last check it was over 120/80, but not my much at all) and even with my walking. I don't know what the heck to do about that. The doctor said that, by losing the extra weight, my BP should come well within range again.

I have mixed feelings. On one hand, yes, I think it's a good idea to make those people who aren't trying pay for their decisions. On the other hand, wow. Big Brother really is watching.

George Orwell really got it right. He was off by a few decades, though.

Health care costs have gotten so high that companies are doing what they can to bring down costs.  Some companies have started firing smokers and many companies have quit hiring smokers.  They probably would do the same for obese people but they still have some political clout as having a disease rather than bad behaviors.  Smokers are fair game for people to penalize.  My company has a high deductable plan, $3000 annual deductable and $6000 out of pocket limit.  The do put $150 a month into my HSA and it rolls over with no limit on the amount that's in it.  In addition to cutting costs for the companies the high deductable plans get people to start thinking about the cost of health care.

I'm just waiting for Aaron's company to do the same.

I agree about this big brother stuff being a bit invasive. One of the externs that works with me ended up having her yearly pap smear fees rejected by insurance due to being overweight. That's scary.

Winchester said:

Blood pressure

Bad cholesterol

High blood sugar

Triglycerides

Tobacco usage

Click to expand...

I can see charging more for those who smoke, but the other 4 while can be caused by improper diet, lack of exercise and weight; they also have hereditary factors to them, which is something that you can't control.

So I don't agree with them charging higher rates for people with hypertension, elevated cholesterol, or diabetes.

Basically they are penalizing people based on their family medical history.

Where my husband works tried to do something like that. They had to do an on-line Health Risk Assessment (HRA). Of course NONE of them told how much beer they drank and made up all kinds of numbers for the "important" questions. BUT what the company did NOT tell them was that they had to wait 5 days after taking the HRA  so it could be "scored" to see if they qualified for the lower cost insurance SO NONE of them had insurance when the new year started!

They all thought they had signed up right after taking the HRA.We found out about not having insurance when my husband went to the dentist and they told him he had to pay for his checkup due to not having insurance. I had to do some calling and asking around to find out what happened. I was able to find some private insurance we could afford but it cost us a LOT more than it would have with the company. Some of the other people were not so lucky.

There is now a lawsuit against the company to make THEM pay us back the extra money it cost us. We did not start it but my husband did sign up to join it. We shall see what happens.

The company does not do the HRA any longer. It will be interesting to see if they try anything like it in the future.

Natalie_ca said:

I can see charging more for those who smoke, but the other 4 while can be caused by improper diet, lack of exercise and weight; they also have hereditary factors to them, which is something that you can't control.
So I don't agree with them charging higher rates for people with hypertension, elevated cholesterol, or diabetes.

Basically they are penalizing people based on their family medical history.

Click to expand...

I agree with that to a certain extent. Everybody in my immediate family had/has high blood pressure. Everybody. Parents and both siblings. My mom was really heavy and she was also diabetic with high cholesterol. Dad had high cholesterol, too. But neither of my siblings is really heavy and I'm not overly-so (although we all know that I could stand to lose a few pounds ).

But with my high blood pressure, I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle, simply because it really is hereditary...and there's nothing I can do about that. I guess I'd be one of those people who would need a letter from my family doctor....and hope that the letter would still qualify me for the Healthy Premium. You can only do so much to try to be healthy.

A few years back, my doctor tried to take me off of blood pressure meds completely. My weight was fine, I was walking and exercising every day. Within two weeks, we could actually see my BP creeping back up....and nothing had changed, other than I was no longer taking meds. That was the genetic part of me, I guess. So I have to be on a very small dose. But I think that as long as the BP stays within normal ranges, it doesn't count against me at the screening, even though I'm on meds.

Kimkats000, I hope the lawsuit comes out in your favor. Good luck!

OMG what is happening to our civil rights? 

Just a thought:

A lady posted on another forum that she gets charged less for her insurance if she walks/jogs so many steps per day.

She is in the States. Here is what she said: They give us money off on our health insurance at work for the number of steps we take and we get the most of if we average 10000

l'm not sure who "they" is - the company she works for or the insurance company, but it would stand to reason that if your insurance company would penalize what it considers to be unhealthy choices, it should reward proven healthy choices.