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holy how does anyone still have babies lol. we used to have to spent 10€ to see a doctor over here but they eventually even dropped that

Yep. I paid $0 for my open heart surgery (15 days at the hospital), and about $10 for my first son's birth in Europe. Second son, in the US, was a different story...
 
Being rewarded in the form of cheaper insurance for being active is great. I'm all for it despite the creepy factor of having such personal information pushed to insurance companies. As long as one can opt in or out, I don't see a problem.

VERY slippery slope.....almost "Googlish"
 
greaaaat things to come. oh well i am not an us citizen so health insurance is all good

Yeah, I'm in Canada and I'm curious how this'll shake out if Apple is in talks with all these institutions. I guess it's one of three things:

1. All the features work, but we won't be able to leverage any 'institutional' benefits by way of insurance or doctor fees or anything (although I don't worry about health care anyway--Go Canada!). The data will be for the user's information only.

2. The whole healthkit and all its features will be withheld from non-US customers like iTunes Radio, myriad iTunes content, or particular apps--it just won't exist on international handsets.

3. It'll be there, but limited to what services *can* be leveraged per country. Some things'll be there... others not.

I'd be okay with the first. A little miffed at the rest.
 
I had to pay about $15.000 for my son's birth, $2500 for three hours at the ER, and $150 each time I go to the doctor. And I have government insurance.

Is that the norm? If it is how on earth does anyone afford anything?
 
I get a $500 discount for a 2 minute check at work and a online health/habits survey. If I got a $1000 discount, I would consider this. I think that this could really help motivate people. Imagine it tracking your activity and adding a $$ amount to exercise? Don't feel like getting up to go walk today? Your phone reminds you that the walk saves you $.xx.

Sorry to be rude. But if you need $$$ to think about your health, then you deserve to pay the consequences of your unhealthy decisions. After all, it becomes pure darwinism.
 
Being rewarded in the form of cheaper insurance for being active is great. I'm all for it despite the creepy factor of having such personal information pushed to insurance companies. As long as one can opt in or out, I don't see a problem.

The more active you are means you are more likely to get hurt also ;)
 
So if I'm rich enough to own an iPhone I'll get a break on my health insurance if Apple/insurer says so? Another perk for the 1%ers.
 
Sorry to be rude. But if you need $$$ to think about your health, then you deserve to pay the consequences of your unhealthy decisions. After all, it becomes pure darwinism.

Money is an incentive for some people, that was my point. You are rude and your little Mr. iWatch story was dumb.
 
Is that the norm? If it is how on earth does anyone afford anything?

I can't say that it's the norm. I live in Texas, and other states will have different prices.
Personally, I find the system very confusing.
After you choose (PPO, PMO, HDPC or whatever plan), you and your company have to pay a monthly bill (very steep).
than you have copays, deductibles, contracts etc. When you go to the ER, or to do any test you will NOT know how much you are going to pay. For example after a birth you might receive:
1) Bill from the hospital
2) Bill from the doctor
3) Bill from the anesthesiologist
4) Bill from extra-care services.

What you get, at most, is an estimate. Then you have to check that your insurance applied the correct deductibles.
Same if you do x-rays. How many bills, and how much? Usually the answer they give you is "it depends, you do the tests, then we call the insurance company, we reach a deal, and you pay".

Look at this plan summary, although it's just an example. After you do, you will kiss each and every European hospital: http://uba-ebc.portals.s3.amazonaws.com/64367_2014 HDHP SOB.png

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Money is an incentive for some people, that was my point. You are rude and your little Mr. iWatch story was dumb.


yeah, I was too rude. I didn't mean to attack you. It's just that I am very opinionated about health insurance companies and their scams.
Mr. iWatch is unhappy.
 
This is the story of Mr. iWatch. He was a nice guy, blue eyes, and led a beautiful, yet average family life.
His parents, his wife, and his children were very proud of him. His boss found him one of the few trustworthy people he had ever met.
Mr. iWatch was always smiling, and always training, monitoring his health status, health habits and his calorie intake thanks to his smart-wristphone. He trained five days a week, and was fit and muscolar. He went on training for his entire adult life.
But he held a dark secret. He missed training on September 19th, 2015. It was his HIIT day, and for once he wasn't in the mood. He just relaxed, had a coffee with sugar and, for once, a cookie.
Unfortunately, Mr. iWatch died on February 28th, 2045 of heart attack.

Everyone in town was present at his funeral, and the euology was a true celebration of Mr. iWatch's life. Everyone who knew him cried and remembered.
All, except one, Mr. InsHealth, a thin individual with excavated eyes. According to his company records, Mr. iWatch did not respect the "lead a healthy lifestile" clause of his contract. Mr. iWatch missed a training day, the data-mining palantir was clear.
There, at the local church, with a grin, Mr. InsHealth thought the most pleasant thought of the day, "Mr. iWatch led a healthy lifestile, minus one day."

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it's truly the only thing I miss about living in Europe.
I had to pay about $15.000 for my son's birth, $2500 for three hours at the ER, and $150 each time I go to the doctor. And I have government insurance.

Two things.

First off, that story was disturbing and simultaneously awesome.

Second, the CEO of the company I work for is originally Canadian, and was appalled when he moved to the states and saw the healthcare bills. So our company now covers 100% of all medical expenses (in a kinda round-about way to avoid some bizarre legislation). I've basically been living with a socialized healthcare system for a few years now and I must say the piece of mind is fantastic.
 
Are you a fat smoker that drinks too much?:D

No, this poster is in touch with realty. Insurance companies are in the business of collecting as much money in premiums as possible while paying out the very least in claims. It's known as profit. Shareholders like profit. That's why they buy stock.

TC may bellow to AAPL owners at the annual shareholder meeting to get out if they want ROI. Theatrics. He'll sell your liver if you make it available. Profit. It's the entire game.
 
No, this poster is in touch with realty. Insurance companies are in the business of collecting as much money in premiums as possible while paying out the very least in claims. It's known as profit. Shareholders like profit. That's why they buy stock.

TC may bellow to AAPL owners at the annual shareholder meeting to get out if they want ROI. Theatrics. He'll sell your liver if you make it available. Profit. It's the entire game.

Would he sell your brain?
 
Major dislike. Are oyu paying attention Apple employees - a move like this would stop me from buying an i Watch
they don't make insurance cheaper, they create fake discounts.
They punish those who don't follow the rules that THEY set up. And they use any possible excuse not to pay when they should.
I eat a french fry, I have an unrelated heart attack... and they can avoid to pay for my cures.

It's very dangerous and intrusive.

and mind you. In 2009 a major insurance company wanted $900 a week (A WEEK!!!) because of a pre-existing condition. That's their mind-set, the last thing you want is for them to know what you do, because whatever you do, it won't be 100% healthy.
If you've seen how HealthKit integration works, you'd know it's up to the user to "allow" each app to access their HealthKit data (very similar to M7 data access). So I could let Runkeeper see my weight tracking data, but not my insurance company's app. The choice is all yours.

Of course, this doesn't prevent an insurance company from giving all their users an iPhone and saying if you don't hook it up then your rates are higher, but I don't see this happening and they can't force you go buy an iPhone...
 
I get up to $150/yr based on how many steps I walk. It works quite nicely, Im glad to see I would be potentially able to use the health app for this and not continue to use the specialty app (or pedometer) currently.

Too much reactionary posting in this thread. if you don't want the discount benefits, don't sign up for them. They have always been there, apple is not creating them.
 
yep. and this is where i leave apple... i don't want the insurance companies to turn around and use my data against me. see ya.
 
yep. and this is where i leave apple... i don't want the insurance companies to turn around and use my data against me. see ya.

Bye. Enjoy your Android crapper phone.

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I get up to $150/yr based on how many steps I walk. It works quite nicely, Im glad to see I would be potentially able to use the health app for this and not continue to use the specialty app (or pedometer) currently.

Too much reactionary posting in this thread. if you don't want the discount benefits, don't sign up for them. They have always been there, apple is not creating them.

So how do you track and report your steps?
 
It could offset some of the cost of an iWatch if it was a tick box (like it is if your car is parked off the road), but it would get scary if they required access to the data.

So potential for good, potential for bad.
 
If you've seen how HealthKit integration works, you'd know it's up to the user to "allow" each app to access their HealthKit data (very similar to M7 data access). So I could let Runkeeper see my weight tracking data, but not my insurance company's app. The choice is all yours.

Agreed, but you know that companies can punish you indirectly, with so-called discounts. Cost is $10.000 a month, but only $1.000 if you get the iWatch. They can even subsidize it. It's any insurance company's dream to monitor customers on a daily, if not hourly basis. I just wonder if they could have legal authority to drop you from insurance if they see that you don't follow a certain pattern.
 
Well, thank goodness that 1984 wasn't like 1984.

as long as the iAnalProbe is not mandatory...

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I don't think Obamacare permits that in the U.S. due to the rule about preexisting conditions. (http://obamacarefacts.com/pre-existing-conditions.php)

which is very true, thank goodness. However I think that they can drop you if the behavior is not consistent to the insurance policy (for example, you have a heart condition and eat fries every day).
 
Bye. Enjoy your Android crapper phone.

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So how do you track and report your steps?

The program uses either their own pedometer (which you have to hook up to your mac/pc to upload) or you can connect a fitbit to your account. The fitbit is better because you can use the fitbit iphone app and it periodically dumps your steps to the rewards site in the background.

With the M7 and all I wish they just used the iphone pedometer data directly and spare me the extra dongle to carry. Maybe healthkit will help me do that.
 
I get up to $150/yr based on how many steps I walk. It works quite nicely, Im glad to see I would be potentially able to use the health app for this and not continue to use the specialty app (or pedometer) currently.

Too much reactionary posting in this thread. if you don't want the discount benefits, don't sign up for them. They have always been there, apple is not creating them.

Here's an idea: strap the pedometer to a dog, and enjoy the discounts.

The point is, the excuse will be "healthy people will pay less" whereas the real reason will be to make the others pay more. It's like a cell data plan that would cap the 5 percent who use the most data. After a while, a naturally occurring revolving movement would appear, so everybody will pay more.
 
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