Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study

Re:Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study by chii on Saturday March 16, 2019 @08:27PM (#19411358)

It would be a huge invasion of privacy for an insurance company to do this - and not only privacy, but the fact that insurance companies can discriminate based on this data means that the healthy don't end up subsidising the unhealthy (which is the whole point of insurance). SO premiums go up regardless, and only the insurance company win in this scenario.

Right now, the right choice is to combat this problem before it becomes a real problem. Before it sets root as cultrually acceptable to hand over your biometrics data to private companies without the right payment and compensation.

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Re:Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study by eric-hu on Sunday March 17, 2019 @03:00AM (#19412630)

> but the fact that insurance companies can discriminate based on this data means that the healthy don't end up subsidising the unhealthy (which is the whole point of insurance).

I agree with your premise about the point of insurance. How is the discussed idea any different than insurance companies giving different rates to older people and denying coverage for pre existing conditions, in terms of discrimination against the non healthy?

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Re:Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study by lotsofpulp on Sunday March 17, 2019 @07:02AM (#19413384)

It’s not different, but denying coverage for pre existing conditions is illegal in the US. Also, there is a limit to the ratio between the highest premium and lowest premium in the insurance pool, along with out of pocket maximums so you will still end up with the healthy subsidizing the unhealthy.

Incentives to make people healthier should not be a problem with these constraints (max premium rations and guaranteed coverage for everyone). It’s no different than offering a lower car insurance premium to someone that doesn’t drive drunk.

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Re:Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study by foepys on Sunday March 17, 2019 @05:38AM (#19413139)

These are so American problems... It already reads like a dystopia.

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Re:Apple Watch detects irregular heart beat in large U.S. study by GuiA on Saturday March 16, 2019 @08:43PM (#19411428)

I completely agree with your sentiment. Sadly given the state of privacy, healthcare, lobbying, etc in the US, it is something I am very worried about.

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