HIDDEN TRADE-OFFS IN INSURANCE WELLNESS PROGRAMS

Would you like a Fitbit with that insurance policy? It seems, perhaps, like a strange question for a policyholder to hear. Yet this, and similar questions, are increasingly common due to a trend in insurer wellness programs. Health and life insurance companies are offering policyholders wellness programs akin to counterparts in the employment arena, where policyholders receive rewards or premium discounts in exchange for participating in health education and surveys or for meeting set health goals. The programs, occurring in both group and individual insurance, aim to incentivize policyholders to take personal responsibility for health behaviors. The expansion of wellness programs comes even as growing evidence suggests that workplace wellness programs do not significantly improve health or other metrics. Although promoting health is a worthy goal, if insurer wellness programs fail to create meaningful change in health metrics, their use may further entrench a system of shifting costs to those most burdened in society under the weak guise of personal responsibility and health promotion. Insurers may simultaneously benefit from gaining valuable consumer data without clarity on how this data will be used or shared. Therefore, while the stated trade-off of wellness programs is discounts for good health, the hidden reality is a trade-off of diminished privacy and increased costs borne by individuals in exchange for no guarantee of improved societal health