Should insurance companies be able to read Facebook?

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.