←back to thread

279 points bookofjoe | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0.058s | source
Show context
siliconc0w ◴[] No.44609926[source]
Sadly health insurance in the US is unlikely to pay for most preventative care because the followup costs of false-positives and that they are betting that down the line someone else will pick up the tab when you get sick decades later (like the government).

It's kind of why I'm favor of universal option to align financial incentives. Like given how sick the US population is, it probably makes sense to put a lot more people of GPL-1s and invest in improving their efficacy and permanence. Like nationalize-the-patent COVID-operational-warp-speed level urgency. There are over 100M Americans that are pre-diabetic, the cost of treating a diabetic is about 20k/yr. So $4 trillion in new costs, on top of the misery and human suffering.

replies(6): >>44610089 #>>44610202 #>>44610203 #>>44610287 #>>44612299 #>>44613546 #
johnisgood ◴[] No.44610089[source]
It is sad that prevention is not something the US considers very important.
replies(1): >>44610217 #
ziml77 ◴[] No.44610217[source]
They care about prevention but only if it's very cheap. I get emails all the time from my insurance company about joining their program that is supposed to help you live a healthier lifestyle.
replies(1): >>44610431 #
1. johnisgood ◴[] No.44610431{3}[source]
Any details on this program?
replies(1): >>44610957 #
2. jacobgkau ◴[] No.44610957[source]
I started getting emails from Cigna about Omada after switching over to them last year. They pitch it as something you can sign up for to get health coaching. They (or their AI, soon if not already) provide that by sending you some "free" sensors (scale, pedometer, etc) and collecting lots of health information.

Searching the web shows that Cigna forces some patients to use this program in order to receive coverage for certain conditions. They're likely saving all the info collected through it in order to use it to deny you coverage if they can at all make an argument that something was caused by your lifestyle, was pre-existing for a certain amount of time, etc-- at least, that's the vibe I got from researching it.

replies(1): >>44611295 #
3. johnisgood ◴[] No.44611295[source]
> They're likely saving all the info collected through it in order to use it to deny you coverage

Oh God, that is so sad and infuriating. :(