Act Healthy, Get Cash Back?

Health insurance should not be tied to employment. What does one have to do with the other, after all? Why should a stay-at-home-mom or a freelancer or someone on disability have to worry about where they’re going to get coverage simply because they aren’t getting a W2? It’s a ridiculous system.

But, in America, it’s our ridiculous system and most of us have to work within in it, as do our employers and our health insurance companies. Sometimes that leads to interesting innovations, such as this one — a free fitness tracker, with bonus dollars for you if you use it — by upstart Oscar:

Oscar members can order their new Misfit on the Oscar iOS or Android app. It syncs to the app automatically, so users only need to strap it on and get to walking. Users who already have a fitness tracker can also connect it to the Oscar app using Apple HealthKit, but that takes a bit more set up. Oscar’s algorithms determine how many steps each member should aim for in a day, based on that person’s health data. Each day a member surpasses that goal, he gets $1. When he accrues $20, he can cash out in the form of an Amazon gift card.

$20 can buy many peanuts! $200 (the annual max) can buy even more. Is it worth overcoming one’s objections to fitness trackers in the first place, getting the gizmo, hooking it up, letting your health insurance company monitor how many steps you take, and then receiving your reward in the form of a gift card to an evil empire?

Speaking of which, said evil empire is offering non-subscribers a one-day-only chance tomorrow, Saturday, to binge-watch its Golden Globe-winning and admittedly terrific new show Transparent for free.

Oscar is well-situated to make this experiment:

It’s not unusual for a health insurer to introduce a wellness incentive program based on wearable activity tracking — programs like Humana Vitality have been around for a number of years. But buying devices for every one of its members is something Oscar can do more easily than its larger competitors, because it has comparatively few members (and $150 million in the bank).

As a person who enjoys walking, I am well-situated to take advantage of it. I walk all the time! Why not get paid for it? The gizmo has been dutifully ordered, synced to my Oscar app, and, starting this morning, clipped to my shirt. I’ll let you know how it goes. For now, I am dubious. (And feeling guilty for typing this sitting down.) How on earth can the Misfit tell how many steps I’m taking while being clipped to my shirt? Is this one of the many mysteries I’ll never truly understand, like how the pictures get on the teevee?

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