Should insurance companies be able to read Facebook?
Categories: Diet & Weight Loss, Reviews & Products, Motivation
What if your insurance premiums reflected the things you wrote on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, or LiveJournal? Or worse: what if an insurer denied coverage altogether because of your blog? That is the situation a New Jersey court will be deciding on in regards to a pair of girls with eating disorders.The concept being debated is whether or not these online expressions should be available for review by insurance companies. A class action lawsuit was brought against one insurer for not picking up the claim to treat anorexia and bulimia for two teenagers. The companies say that things posted online, diaries and even emails should be fair game.
How do these things relate to health insurance anyway? Well, these two cases are references a mental illness. For coverage to be extended, the illnesses have to be biologically based -- not peer pressured or externally influenced. A girl's MySpace, for example, may be able to give them an idea on how "biological" their daughter's bulimia is. However the parents don't think that is fair. People have been saying to be careful about what you put online. It is a situation like this which makes you understand what they were referring to.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Amanda 2-25-2008 @ 8:28PM
I think that its fine for insurance companies to read things that are openly posted online. Not private things like e-mails, but if it is openly posted on a website- it is fair game. Just like employers check out employees, insurance companies might check out those they cover.
The problem I think that this post raises is that "the illnesses have to be biologically based -- not peer pressured or externally influenced." This is the part that is wrong with insurance companies. It shouldn't matter how or why a person is sick. They are sick and need help. These people still have a real disease, it doesn't matter if peer pressure was a factor or not, they should be treated just the same.
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marcie0305 2-25-2008 @ 10:27PM
I have plenty of concerns about insurance companies' practices, but whatever you put out there (online or otherwise) is fair game! A lesson many need to learn. I wrote a little about social networks and the concerns here:
http://feedingblackmail.blogspot.com/2007/11/reaction-virtually-real.html
~Marcie
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