Your Doctor Knows You're Killing Yourself. The Data Brokers Told Her

[lighthouse33]

Your Doctor Knows You're Killing Yourself. The Data Brokers Told Her

bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-26/hospitals-soon-see-donuts-to-cigarette-charges-for-health.html

[Tivia]

O_O really, omg how utterly Orwellian. I mean on one hand it may help some people, but on the other its very intrusive 

[Carolina]

Yes, Lighthouse,

It's just a question of time.  There are already companies that charge their overweight employees and smokers MORE for their share of their health insurance.

And many companies offer health club memberships and other incentives, smoking cessation, to encourage employees to lose weight or stop smoking or get their blood pressure or cholesterol down.

We have very high rates of illness, and very expensive medical care in the US, where most of us live.  Compared to many countries our health and health care is inferior and much more expensive.

For most of human history, people lived where EVERYONE knew everything someone ate, everything they did, and generally there was NO PRIVACY. 

We are so used to our privacy that we take it for granted, but it is an entirely new concept for human kind.

Between knowing what employees eat and drink, drug testing, and cameras on most public areas 24/7, there won't be much privacy except behind closed doors.

And even then, if what you buy is monitored, and your blood and urine are monitored, how can you hide?

I already get calls from my Medicare Advantage plan making sure I'm monitoring my cholesterol and such, and encouraging me to use cheaper drugs.  They offer, every year, to send someone to 'discuss' my health with me.

Since I have a myriad of conditions, not the least of which is Primary Immune Deficiency and costs a whopping $14,750 a MONTH just for my IVIG, you can be sure they are concerned about me.

However,, anyone they send would need a long time with me, so I could educated THEM about Immune Deficiency and all the other conditions I have.  It's not worth the effort for me.

These companies and these services are aiming at the person who has no clue that donuts aren't good for their diabetes.  Although how that happens in this day and age is beyond me.  But it does.

Since we are all too human, we will be eating and drinking and having sex and god only  knows what else that isn't 'good for us'.  (some of us are doing some of those things, but not all, of course!)

Where there's a will there's a way, I do believe.

I'm sure there will be class action suits and the (in)famous ACLU will probably chime in at some point.......

Am I worried?  Not a bit.  But then, I practice "not worrying' as a way to survive.

Hugs,  Elaine

 

[litliwlowa]

I am biting my tongue reining in my opinion.

It's worse than orwellian (now I am sitting on my hands on I don't type what I am really thinking about the hypocrisy of this invasiveness)

[Sleepy In Seattle]

They invade OUR privacy and make US pay for things because WE don't pay to put them in office.

They fail to regulate corporations pushing harmful products because they DO pay to put them in office.

Simple as that!

Nothing changes until we get big money out of politics.

And yes, BOTH "sides" do it - it's not a partisan issue.

[litliwlowa]

Between knowing what employees eat and drink, drug testing, and cameras on most public areas 24/7, there won't be much privacy except behind closed doors.

Not even behind closed doors when people voluntarily install these latest greatest wireless security systems in their homes, complete with cameras and all.

And yes, BOTH "sides" do it - it's not a partisan issue.

The idea of two parties anyway has always been an ILLUSION. Two sides of the same coin

Nothing changes until we get big money out of politics.

I partly agree. Change really begins with us not volunteering (and yes, oddly enough we do) under the guise of being more secure to having our privacy compromised. The home security systems is a classic example, even tho off topic.

The article of topic...that's BEEN happening like slow bowling a frog. It's now becoming more OVERT.

My head is still spinning when in 2009 I went for GI series at local medical center. That IS GUT. Two years later roughly, I get a solicition in the mail to participate in a psych study. HUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?

I chased it down, and that same medical center is what gave my info over to that study. NO PSYCH DIAGNOSIS. So what does GUT have to do with my MIND?

In the last couple of years, I am getting an increased number of such solicitations. It's very creepy. About as creepy as every few months getting solicitations in the mail to prepare for my demise from cemetaries. Un HELLO...I am still alive and kicking and more interested in LIVING my life at the moment than I am in reserving my "resting place".

Lately getting solicitation phone calls. It is very clear to me that our once PRIVATE medical information is being shared with parties, in my view, that have no business capitalizing on our medical situations.

I haven't yet been approached either by mail or phone relative to my "habits". Probably as my "habits" are quite benign.