Today, in the mail, I got something unexpected from my health insurance company. It wasn’t a bill, and it wasn’t a scary letter about cancellation. Instead, it was a helpful little pamphlet with advice about dealing with asthma.
Part of the Affordable Care Act includes something called the medical loss ratio. It requires health insurance companies to spend at least 80% of the money that they get from customer’s health insurance premiums on things that actually can improve a person’s health. The insurer cannot include things like salaries, advertising costs, or other administrative costs in that 80%.
One of the ways that insurance companies can cut down on their costs is if they have healthy customers. In the past, many chose to “cherry pick” the healthiest customers, and refuse to cover the people who had chronic, serious, illnesses. This practice has been prohibited. This means that insurers have to find other ways to end up with healthier, less expensive to insure, customers.
My health insurance company has started something called 360 Health. It includes resources, tools, and programs from Anthem that can help you to improve your health. It says “Everybody wants to feel better, be healthier. 360 Health can actually help you do it”.
In the mail today, I got a pamphlet from my insurance company called “Living Your Best With Asthma”. I assume that they selected this particular newsletter to send to me because I have allergies, that can, at times, cause me to have an asthma attack.
It is possible to have asthma without having allergies, and it is also entirely possible to have allergies that can cause asthma. According to the Mayo Clinic, asthma is “a condition in which your airways narrow and swell and produce extra mucus. This can make breathing difficult and trigger coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath”. This condition cannot be cured, but, the symptoms can be controlled and managed.
A large section in the pamphlet I received recommends that I stop smoking, and gives advice on how to do that. I’m certain this advice is helpful for some people, and that it does, eventually, result in a lessening of their asthma symptoms. However, as I am someone who is so allergic to cigarette smoke that I can have an asthma attack simply by being near someone who was recently smoking, this advice does not apply to me. It is physically impossible for me to smoke a cigarette.
Other portions of the pamphlet suggest weight bearing exercises, in order to prevent bone loss. There also is a recipe for Hawaiian chicken included in there, perhaps to encourage healthy eating. Unfortunately, I also have food allergies, and the recipe includes five things that I will have an allergic reaction to. Oh, well.
Clearly, the advice in this pamphlet is designed for people who have asthma that is not related to allergies. I’m certain it can be helpful for that group of people. I know insurers are seeking ways to have healthier customers. This was the first time I had been sent mail about it.
Image by AJ Cann on Flickr