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Aetna's CEO pays workers up to $500 to sleep

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41–50 of 72 posts

Re: Aetna's CEO pays workers up to $500 to sleep

#41
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of insurance is to protect the person you hit by ensuring someone will pay their costs. If the legal minimum is far below the potential costs, then the insurance is failing at that purpose, because it doesn't matter how many millions you settle for, most people can't pay it to you and being owed by a deadbeat doesn't pay hospital bills.

Should the legal minimum be close to the highest potential cost? You can cause massive damage if you hit a luxury car, or are involved in a multi-vehicle accident. Should you be forced to carry insurance that would cover these scenarios? That would drive up the premium of the legally required insurance, and likely increase the number of uninsured motorists. Considering most accidents result in rather small payouts, t…

[deleted]

Re: Aetna's CEO pays workers up to $500 to sleep

#42
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of insurance is to protect the person you hit by ensuring someone will pay their costs. If the legal minimum is far below the potential costs, then the insurance is failing at that purpose, because it doesn't matter how many millions you settle for, most people can't pay it to you and being owed by a deadbeat doesn't pay hospital bills.

Should the legal minimum be close to the highest potential cost? You can cause massive damage if you hit a luxury car, or are involved in a multi-vehicle accident. Should you be forced to carry insurance that would cover these scenarios? That would drive up the premium of the legally required insurance, and likely increase the number of uninsured motorists. Considering most accidents result in rather small payouts, t…

>there must be a cost-benefit analysis done to determine the legally required minimum

If you are saying that this is necessary, then I agree. If you are saying it is happening already, then I am skeptical and would like to see evidence.

Re: Aetna's CEO pays workers up to $500 to sleep

#43
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medical insurance in the US doesn't make any sense. Insurance is supposed to be a hedge against a large risk, but in the US we use our medical insurance to pay for common visits and prescriptions. Everyone is so used to this model that it doesn't seem weird. Imagine if you used your car insurance to pay for gas. That would be ludicrous. No other "insurance" is handled in this manner.

> Imagine if you used your car insurance to pay for gas. That would be ludicrous. That's not ludicrous enough for me. Can the insurance be provided through my employer so that I'll need different insurance to pay for my gas if I switch jobs?

Only if gas stations can charge ludicrously higher rates to your provider but lower it to something reasonable for uninsured drivers.

Re: Aetna's CEO pays workers up to $500 to sleep

#44
post #7

I hate insurance companies. For one, they refused to pay for pre-approved claims when my wife had cancer and was being treated at Stanford (We were double-insured. Apparently, when you have two insurances, it is common for carriers to decline payments in the hope that the other insurance will pay it.) So my wife couldn't get out of bed and we literally had a stack of unpaid bills over a foot high and totaling over a…

I'm sorry. I think their are fixes, but the average American doesn't seem to want change. All these big corporations need to do is throw some money at advertisers, create a little scare--almost always just a scare tactic. Like there will be Death Squads, or we will have to wait six months for a MRI, and the people just cave in, and say no to any changes. Again, I'm sorry about your wife.

Oh yes, the "death panels" nonsense. I remember that bullshit. These insurance companies already are death panels, by design. They have a big pile of money and they get to keep every penny they don't spend on someone's healthcare. Of course they're a fucking death panel. Their business model is letting the most people die without it becoming so obvious that people stop giving them money.

Re: Aetna's CEO pays workers up to $500 to sleep

#45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious how you see a voluntary program to pay employees to do something they should be doing anyway is creepy and/or overreach?

Economically, it isn't purely voluntary. Aetna will factor the cost of this program into their hiring decisions, so you're working for less than market rate if you do not let Aetna track your sleeping patterns.

> Aetna will factor the cost of this program into their hiring decisions, so you're working for less than market rate if you do not let Aetna track your sleeping patterns.

That's a bit of a stretch

Re: Aetna's CEO pays workers up to $500 to sleep

#46
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should the legal minimum be close to the highest potential cost? You can cause massive damage if you hit a luxury car, or are involved in a multi-vehicle accident. Should you be forced to carry insurance that would cover these scenarios? That would drive up the premium of the legally required insurance, and likely increase the number of uninsured motorists. Considering most accidents result in rather small payouts, t…

I think a fair legal minimum is the average price of a new car.

The price of the totaled car is by far the smallest sum if you have really injured someone. In germany the default amount your are insured against is 50 or 100 mio €. 20k is a joke.

Re: Aetna's CEO pays workers up to $500 to sleep

#47
post #34
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medical insurance in the US doesn't make any sense. Insurance is supposed to be a hedge against a large risk, but in the US we use our medical insurance to pay for common visits and prescriptions. Everyone is so used to this model that it doesn't seem weird. Imagine if you used your car insurance to pay for gas. That would be ludicrous. No other "insurance" is handled in this manner.

I wish I could upvote this more than once. In my view, this is one of the fundamental problems with the healthcare system in the US. People may not love car insurance - but it's a far cry from the vitriol reserved for medical insurance. And I think this issue is the fundamental cause of that problem. I want to be insured against rare, ultra high cost events that would otherwise wipe me out financially. I don't want t…

And do you want to be insured against a chronic illness that will require regular not that expensive doctors visits like rheumatism or gout?

Re: Aetna's CEO pays workers up to $500 to sleep

#48
post #17
post #7

I hate insurance companies. For one, they refused to pay for pre-approved claims when my wife had cancer and was being treated at Stanford (We were double-insured. Apparently, when you have two insurances, it is common for carriers to decline payments in the hope that the other insurance will pay it.) So my wife couldn't get out of bed and we literally had a stack of unpaid bills over a foot high and totaling over a…

Medical insurance in the US doesn't make any sense. Insurance is supposed to be a hedge against a large risk, but in the US we use our medical insurance to pay for common visits and prescriptions. Everyone is so used to this model that it doesn't seem weird. Imagine if you used your car insurance to pay for gas. That would be ludicrous. No other "insurance" is handled in this manner.

The vast majority go for regular visits, so the small copay makes it seem they are getting good value.

Re: Aetna's CEO pays workers up to $500 to sleep

#49

Do you have to get all 20 days of 7+ hours of sleep in a row with no screw-ups? If so, seems rather unlikely to happen!

The article is poorly phrased -- I believe the "in a row" applies to (7+ hours of sleep) instead of (20 days of 7+ hours of sleep). In other words, just the seven hours of sleep has to be contiguous?

"In a row" wouldn't normally be used with units of time like that, it implies something happening each time (in this case the 7+ hours of sleep, happening each night)

Re: Aetna's CEO pays workers up to $500 to sleep

#50
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Medical insurance in the US doesn't make any sense. Insurance is supposed to be a hedge against a large risk, but in the US we use our medical insurance to pay for common visits and prescriptions. Everyone is so used to this model that it doesn't seem weird. Imagine if you used your car insurance to pay for gas. That would be ludicrous. No other "insurance" is handled in this manner.

The vast majority go for regular visits, so the small copay makes it seem they are getting good value.

But regular visits for me were cheaper when I had no insurance and told the doc that up front. Now I pay $350/month so that I can pay more for my regular visits.
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