Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
What If Data On The Amount Of TV You Watched Determined Your Health Insurance Costs? It's Not That Far-Fetched
The health insurance industry has been collecting personal data on Americans, from your educational background to things you post on social media. Then they feed this information into complicated computer algorithms that spit out predictions about how much your health care could cost them.
NPR/ProPublica: Health Insurers Tap Data Brokers To Help Predict Costs
To an outsider, the fancy booths at a June health insurance industry gathering in San Diego, Calif., aren't very compelling: a handful of companies pitching "lifestyle" data and salespeople touting jargony phrases like "social determinants of health. "But dig deeper and the implications of what they're selling might give many patients pause: A future in which everything you do — the things you buy, the food you eat, the time you spend watching TV — may help determine how much you pay for health insurance. (Allen, 7/17)
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