Wearing an activity tracker gives insurance companies the data they need to discriminate against people like you

Yeah,so I am Leila, the sensible/sane character, and you’re Bender, the drunken robot that often blows himself up or ends up decapitated… :joy::roll_eyes:

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Actually, I don’t drink alcohol, but hey, if that’s what you’re getting after one, brief interaction with me, I guess you’ve sussed me out or something. Although after reading your posts in this thread, I’d consider you more of a Hermes.

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Ha! I am actually a liberal

Just a hint for the future—team identification is not what you’re being called out about, so if you want to ingratiate yourself into a “liberal” community, do so on specifics. Also, the ACA and HIPAA are in danger of being completely rewritten. The concerns are real, despite your concerns about those legitimate concerns.

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Wait, did someone say we are paranoid?? Who? What are they after? Was it one of the lizard-people David Icke tried to warn us about?

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I work currently for an insurance company and that idea is never the point.

I’m not quite sure.

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This works out to about 6’11" tall.

The 260lbs at 29.9 BMI works out to 6’6" or so.

Where did the extra five inches come from?

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Why anyone would willingly plug a tracking device into their vehicle is beyond me…

bbwwhhrrrrr

checks alerts

Silly trackable human. :wink:

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Because ‘people’ have so much ‘control’ over the ‘law’, amiright?

They insurance industry really shouldn’t used noibs from marketing to post pathetic retorts like that.

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No, I don’t work for insurance but I do work with employers to help them set up their health plans, and I worked on the employer side for many years. Yes, I happen to actually know about this topic - some might call me an expert. You? No.

I have quickly learned through my trying to bring some insider input to this conversation that no one cares. You will believe what you wand. Go ahead, but it is not accurate in this case.

My bad! “Welcome to BoingBoing” has been the theme here, and I say “adios” as a commenter!

Absolutely! The whole point if insurance is to balance the sick with the ill, so premiums can be balanced, as well.

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Yeah, sorry. Spell check does not always work, and typing via iPad is not optimal. I do understand how to spell big words correctly.

Yknow, I’ve been gone for awhile and in coming back, I’ve noticed that we have become not very welcoming. There are a lot of replies that imply because someone’s new, they must be a paid troll, or at the very least they are not “one of us” and therefore should not be responded to in a reasonable, or even polite, manner.

I’d like that to change.

@owly; don’t go. I dont agree with you, but I think your opinion is valuable. I also think that you’ve been unfairly treated, and as a result, backed in to a corner that forces you to be defensive. That is not the culture we try to promote here. or one that fosters discussion. We should be better than that.

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The rationale for these health incentive programs is not sinister at all, healthy people file fewer claims so its in the interest of the health & life insurance industry to lower the claim burden by promoting healthy lifestyles.

I appreciate the kindness from you, even if we disagree. Yes, civil discussion can be very interesting and thought-provoking. Intolerance and hate kills the debate…

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There is something to be said for that, but then again there’s also a certain correspondence between people that show up here for the first time, post many times in a single thread, then disappear never to be heard from again. It’s not that they’re automatically trollies (paid or otherwise), but it doesn’t leave me feeling like they’re really here to be part of whatever community we have here.

Oh, certainly, but thinking of how often I’ve seen very well meaning allies come into queer communities and dismiss our lived experiences because they haven’t experienced the things we have, I see more than a bit of a parallel. It’s often hard to see our privileges, especially when we’ve helped create the systems which are helping to keep others in their place. To bring this back to the topic of insurance companies and activity trackers, I happen to have a FitBit (one that I bought, not one that was provided to me by someone else.) I rather like it and note that it does help me increase my activity level.

If I had a provided tracker, I’d likely still see these benefits, but if I believed that whoever provided the tracker had my best interests in mind because I either never had a company decide cutting costs at my expense was a grand idea or, as a random example, because I actually thought I was helping my fellow employees by implementing these programs … well, I’d probably be fairly unaware of the associated privileges involved.

I love to see varied opinions, but I do perfectly understand why there many be some hesitation towards new participants, especially when they’re casually dismissing valid concerns over a given topic. “Tut tut, I know so much more than you about this” is kind of hard to swallow.

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Well maybe if we treated them a little more kindly, they wouldn’t disappear.

Look, I get that there are assholes. And I’ve been gone for awhile - long enough to miss what I’m sure was some pretty crazy post-election stuff. So more than a few folks probably showed up, dropped a comment bomb and left before they could be blamed for the damage. But we need to find a way of bringing people in, and encouraging them to dialog in a reasonable way, instead of what happened here when @Owly came in to comment on something that she had some expertise with, and was met with skepticism (me), rudeness (others, and maybe a little bit me) and scorn. As a result she was forced in to a corner and ended up getting a little pissy, which made other people pissy (me, and others) and then the whole thing ended with her threatening to take her toys and go home. We need to ask ourselves; what can we do to make this a welcoming environment without necessarily taking any guff or allowing people to dominate the boards without being challenged?

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Er… Who’s “we?”

I’ve never been very “welcoming;” you must have just now noticed.

Seriously though; sarcasm and snark are how I communicate, and that has not changed since I joined this site almost a year ago.

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I should say that I actually don’t think your snark (in this case) was the unwelcoming bit. I interpreted your cat GIF as more a statement about our paranoia.

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