Saving Money on Health Insurance By Living Healthier?

In a world where healthcare costs are rising, and in a country where obesity and other unhealthy conditions are rampant, one health insurance company is offering incentives for people who choose to live healthy lifestyles. United Healthcare is the company, and Money Smart Life describes its program:

The program creates incentives for its members to adopt healthy behaviors. According to the Kansas City Business Journal, participants in the United Healthcare pilot program take tests to measure their health against body mass, cholesterol, blood-pressure, and nicotine usage benchmarks similar to those set by the National Institutes of Health. Any member that is in line with or better than the benchmarks earns credits towards their deductible.

This is an  interesting idea. But will it catch on? In a way, sick folks already sort of pay more for health insurance. I am generally healthy, but last year I got an eye infection, and my husband had a cyst removed. Those are the only non-checkup things we did last year. We didn’t even have to take my son to the doctor beyond his well child visit. But just those two relatively inexpensive “extras” boosted our premium by nearly $100 per month. Nevermind that for three years previous all we had was one doctor visit per year. And I doubt that the premium will drop if we don’t make extra visits this year.

So this credit for healthy living intrigues me. But the program doesn’t offer any tangible money benefits, beyond credits toward the deductible. So the premium could still go up. Now, I don’t about you, but it is kind of maddening that the CEO of my health insurance company is getting $10 million a year, while my health insurance premium goes up when I rarely even make use of it. I know it’s a necessity, but shouldn’t I get some slack for living healthy? It saves the health insurance company money. Shouldn’t the company return the favor?