![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Health Insurance Rant
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2005 03:09 pmI don't think I've fussed about Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield lately. It was easier to just pay the usurious monthly bill, shoulder the impo$$ible deductible and just hopetoGHOD they would actually pay out if-and-when either of us actually needs catastrophic health care, and without burdening whichever of us is doing caretaking with fifteen thousand obnoxious bureaucratic demands. Call me a crazy dreamer.
Anyhow, in today's mail comes a Slick Advertising Piece(tm) from the good folks at Anthem, urging me to log!on!right!now! to anthemrewards.com and start!earning!points! toward useless, stupid chatchkes. Ten!Points! for every thirty minutes of exercise logged! Twenty-five bonus!! points! just for signing up! Accumulate 250 points and I'm eligible for a t-shirt, keep saving and I could collect a sleeping bag, a Swiss Army watch, or a sports bag! And That's Just The Beginning!
Now, dammit...
How stupid do you have to be to NOT UNDERSTAND that people in Maine, the great majority of whom are, by report, underinsured or not insured at all, which is directly attributable to the high cost of health insurance, want -- stay with me now -- relief from the high cost of health insurance. Not sleeping bags; not soccer balls, or t-shirts. Relief. Monetary relief.
You want a Rewards program that will engage people? Here's one: Give me five bucks off my monthly premium for every time I go to the gym. Ten bucks for participating in a marathon. Fifty cents for every mile I ride my bike. Or maybe we could rack up points that could be used for something useful -- preventative care visits, say; annual exams; flu shots.
Mind you, I don't expect any of this to happen. Anthem has a PR problem in Maine, for some reason, and everybody knows that the way to make the kids like you is to give them candy.
Anyhow, in today's mail comes a Slick Advertising Piece(tm) from the good folks at Anthem, urging me to log!on!right!now! to anthemrewards.com and start!earning!points! toward useless, stupid chatchkes. Ten!Points! for every thirty minutes of exercise logged! Twenty-five bonus!! points! just for signing up! Accumulate 250 points and I'm eligible for a t-shirt, keep saving and I could collect a sleeping bag, a Swiss Army watch, or a sports bag! And That's Just The Beginning!
Now, dammit...
How stupid do you have to be to NOT UNDERSTAND that people in Maine, the great majority of whom are, by report, underinsured or not insured at all, which is directly attributable to the high cost of health insurance, want -- stay with me now -- relief from the high cost of health insurance. Not sleeping bags; not soccer balls, or t-shirts. Relief. Monetary relief.
You want a Rewards program that will engage people? Here's one: Give me five bucks off my monthly premium for every time I go to the gym. Ten bucks for participating in a marathon. Fifty cents for every mile I ride my bike. Or maybe we could rack up points that could be used for something useful -- preventative care visits, say; annual exams; flu shots.
Mind you, I don't expect any of this to happen. Anthem has a PR problem in Maine, for some reason, and everybody knows that the way to make the kids like you is to give them candy.
