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Why Health Insurers Want to Read your Facebook Page
Can your Facebook profile prevent you from getting health insurance?
That might depend on the outcome of an upcoming court case. As Portfolio explains, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey is entrenched in two class-action lawsuits regarding whether or not blog posts, LiveJournal entries or any other online writings are fair game for review by health-insurance companies.
The plaintiffs, who are parents of teenagers, took legal action when Horizon denied their kids coverage for anorexia and bulimia. Law.com reports that Horizon claims that the teenagers’ online postings, e-mails, journal and diary entries can offer insight about the cause of the disorder, which would determine whether or not the insurer (in this case, Horizon), is responsible for payment. Under New Jersey law, mental illness coverage is only required if it is biologically based. We don’t know what the other causes might be (Environmental? Peer Pressure? Anyone have an opinion?), but therein lie the conflict.
We’re no cyber law experts, but it doesn’t seem like Horizon makes much of a distinction between an e-mail between two people and a public blog post that anyone could find through Google. So if Horizon’s logic was applied 10 years go (pre-Myspace messaging), would notes two people passed in class be fair game? A diary under a pillow that a teenager had shared with a single best friend?
A ruling in the case last December by a Newark judge took the position that “the writings are therapy tools meant for self-reflection” and that if disclosed would cause stress, anxiety and the potential for relapse, Portfolio reports. The internet promoting good health - it seems strange that an insurance company would try and undermine that.
The use of social-networking information for health-insurance eligibility purposes could put us all on a slippery slope. What if I blog about having headaches? Or post that a family member died of cancer? What about photos of people drinking? Can I expect my premiums to go up, even before I’ve set foot in a doctor’s office?
This case is very complicated and will be locked up in the slow-moving wheels of justice for a while. But as we fret about the high numbers of uninsured young people, how craptastic insurance really is even when you have it and continue to try and use the internet for better, it’s something to think about.
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(9) Comments
That’s why you shouldn’t readily accept just anyone, or rather use the permission settings to only allow close friends to see your pictures or information. Regulation and controlling what information you give out is crucial.
That’s why single-payer healthcare should be the goal. Americans need to put an end to the greed-driven mentality of deciding who, what, or how much gets covered.
Insurance companies profit when they don’t pay… they do not act for the public good. It’s no surprise to me that they would be using every means possible to look for any possible excuse not to cover someone fully. A system whose only clients are those who are healthy (and who remain healthy), should not be allowed to call itself “healthcare”.
My advice to Americans is to come to Canada and see what socialized medicine really looks like. It’s not at all scary. Not that our system is perfect, but it seems to be a lot better than the madness that’s going on to the south.
Why on earth would anyone want to broadcast to the world their personal life/hopes/desires/shopping habits etc. Only neutral or harmful outcomes could come of this.
I never understood the whole social networking thing (instead of private emails)
Nice article. Will think seven times now before creating post in my blog or any social network. But I admit that not only insure companies seraching online information regarding personals. Just my IMHO.
Jon has it exactly right. The problem here isn’t the use of publicly provided information on blogs, it’s the insurance companies who refuse to insure people unless they are of minimal risk. Insurance works by spreading out risks across large populations but insurance companies aren’t interested in large populations, they’re only interested in the profitable ones.
I find it interesting that some people feel the solution is to hide information from companies that want to use it. That means that you advocate deceit. If you’re going to post it in a public blog, then you should be willing to tell it to a potential insurer.
Security settings don’t help, unfortunately, if Facebook/Myspace sell your information to these companies. That does happen, and yes it should be a concern to people of breaches of privacy. But hey, the authorities do it and the authorities are law.
With regards to the question about mental health, I would recommend using a completely different healthcare system. Oriental Medicine dates back close to 5000 years; uses acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine and other modalities to diagnose and treat, all without dangerous side-effects and at a fraction of the cost. It’s foundational basis lies in a completely different system of evaluating illness, including mental illness; than it’s western counterpart. Mental issues are correlated to internal organ imbalance and uses various types of treatment modalities including food as medicine, acupuncture, acupressure, and herbal medicine; again without side-effects. I’ve been practicing this ancient medical art for close to 13 years in a private practice and do not bill health insurance. My patients budget for their care and get well. Health Insurance (or disease insurance) was designed to cover expensive drugs and surgery. We shouldn’t expect any more from it. Keep it for the big emergencies. The key is to avoid ever needing it. We need to become more responsible for our own health and seek out ways to keep our bodies in optimal condition. Oriental medicine can evaluate and treat imbalances BEFORE they become a disease process. Everyone who has a body should be checked and maintained by an Oriental Medicine specialist. To tell these stories, I created a public access TV program called “Health Options.” There’s even one interview with a young girl and her mom about how we handled her “separation anxiety” using acupressure. Go to my web site http://drmary.riggin.net and check out the show; we have close to 30 shows that were produced over a 5-year period.
I agree that health care reform needs to take place in some form or another. I have Fibromyalgia and BiPolar Disorder, and my husband’s company changed insurance carriers, but they tried to deny me coverage for my BiPolar meds. Why? They said it was a “Pre-existing” condition. Well, we didn’t CHOOSE to switch insurance carriers, we were forced to! How fair is it that even in that sense they can tell us we won’t be insured, let alone using blog posts/message boards/support forums/etc to deny even more people unjustly! After several weeks of calls and arguments, we were allowed coverage due to “extenuating circumstances” but the whole process is ridiculous!
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