Wow, I am feeling way better than I did this morning so that is good. My body is still pretty sore but hopefully most of that will be gone by tomorrow.

I was watching a show tonight on the Discovery Channel about what the future will be like in the year 2057. It is a multi part show and I was only able to watch the first one and a half tonight. The first one was on medical advances which will be made. The technologies all seemed pretty cool for the most part, but the world they were portraying was this horrible dystopia! It seems that your health insurance company will have access to every aspect of your life and will be able to adjust your coverage based on how healthy you live. The main “character” gets up in the morning and heads to the bathroom to get ready for work or whatever. When he walks up to the toilet, he is reminded by a computer voice that his urine will be tested for alcohol so he goes to a cabinet and retrieves a container of urine that is presumably free of any traces of alcohol from partying the night before and pours that into the toilet. Then while brushing his teeth, an insurance company reminder to use a fancy toothbrush comes up on his mirror. He makes some grumbled statement about how if he used the toothbrush they would know how often and how long he brushes his teeth. When getting dressed, he puts on smart clothing that monitors his heart rate and general health. After walking out the door of his apartment he trips on an Roomba cleaning robot and falls down a flight of stairs and out a window. The insurance company is immediately alerted of his change in health. From here on out is where it got really scary for me. The insurance company decides based on his level of coverage they will approve the dispatching of an ambulance! Then when he gets to the hospital, it is discovered he has been cheating on his urine tests so he is dropped by his insurance and is moved from the very posh personal care unit to what looks like a poorly lit and understaffed basement room for everyone who is “NI,” not insured. He is even taken off the list for a necessary but expensive heart transplant that will save his life because the health insurance will no longer pay.

Now, I am not sure yet if I am a proponent of universal health care, there are certainly a lot of problems with it. But a future like this! Insurance companies are the last people I want playing big brother! I agree that smoking and excessive drinking are certainly health risks and increase the likelihood of chronic illness and should thus be taken into account as part of what a person should pay for their health insurance. But how often you brush your teeth, or if you don’t weigh what the insurance company deems is appropriate? Everyone’s body is different. I could make an argument that I am healthier than some people half my size that are always catching colds or getting the flu. The author’s of the “You” books Oz and Roizen have stated that weight alone is a terrible measure of overall health. They point to other factors which take into account overall health aside from weight alone. My point is, people are too different for insurance companies to have that much control over our lives. They certainly shouldn’t be controlling whether or not an ambulance is dispatched! All in all the show was a rather odd thing to watch, not quite what I expected for a show that is supposed to paint a rosy view of the future! Anyway, off to bed for now, I wouldn’t want my insurance company thinking I am putting my health at risk by not getting a full 8 hours of sleep!

Filed under: life by Jonathan Assink