John Hancock will require fitness tracking for life insurance

Life insurance company John Hancock will stop offering traditional policies, according to Venture Beat. Instead, the company, which is one of the oldest and largest life insurance underwriters in the US, will only sell policies that track fitness and health data. The company will offer two different types of insurance: the basic Vitality offering will require customers to enter their fitness activity into an app or on a website. They will receive gift cards and other rewards for completing goals. For a discount of up to 15 percent on premiums, though, John Hancock is offering an expanded insurance policy that will track health data and fitness using wearable devices. This isn't John Hancock's first foray into health and fitness tracking for its life insurance policies. The company began offering "interactive" programs back in 2015. Last year, John Hancock offered customers a $25 Apple Watch if they met certain fitness goals. Now, the company isn't offering its customers a choice; traditional life insurance plans will be converted to Vitality plans starting in 2019. The idea of incentivizing life insurance policy holders to stay fit and thus live longer makes sense, but the company is essentially asking users to trade their personal health data for policy discounts (or to have a policy at all). It could also end up punishing users who have short-term health conditions, such as an injury, illness or a pregnancy and are unable to keep up with fitness goals. It's also worth remembering that it isn't too hard to intentionally game the steps count and other stats with these devices, and that they aren't perfectly accurate. Via: Reddit Source: Venture Beat via Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2PSI8p5 If New feed item from http://www.engadget.com/rss-full.xml, then send me Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.