Insurers are today capable of and are, in fact, gathering ever-more-detailed information about us, using publicly available and purchasable information like shopping records, household details, and social-media profiles to inform decisions.
Without any public scrutiny, insurers and data brokers are predicting your health costs based on data about things like race, marital status, how much TV you watch, whether you pay your bills on time or even buy plus-size clothing.
Merrill Matthews Jr., a health policy analyst, says one key to reviving the U.S. individual major medical market is bringing back medical underwriting.
http://www.lifehealthpro.com/2016/11/23/health-market-needs-medical-unde...
Obesity – a well-recognized risk factor for diabetes, coronary artery disease, as well a few cancers – is also an important risk factor for asthma. It can present itself as a distinct asthma phenotype. Obese-asthmatics are likely to present with additional morbidity costs in terms of increased health care utilization, significant loss of working days and an overall poorer quality of life. This article discusses this phenotype, and explains the pathophysiological mechanism and impact of this on morbidity, disability and health care utilization in obese-asthmatic individuals.
http://www.rgare.com/knowledgecenter/Pages/The_Obese_Asthma_Phenotype.aspx