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“LivingWell” with Scylla and Charybdis

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I just received my official Kentucky Employees Health Plan 2014 Benefits Selection Guide, and boy, does it suck. I’m sure I can extend my vocabulary skills to come up with a more sophisticated, linguistically accurate description, but as a visceral reaction you can’t beat the average  middle school student perspective. It’s really, really bad–I’m so irritated with it that I am literally at a loss as to what to do with my plan selection. So, let me break it down for you, and then I can take some comments on which plan I should pick.

First off, there are four plans, two of which have massively better co-insurance, and two that are more like the plans we had last year without a set copay, and with massively higher deductibles and member monetary contributions after said deductible is met. In terms of actual cost of the plans, three out of four are less expensive than last year’s plans, but the benefits are much less, too. However, what really gets me is that the only plan with a set co-pay, the LivingWell PPO, requires me to sign a LivingWell promise to get the good benefits! Here are the creepy, Orwellian LivingWell steps to health care Nirvana (don’t read this with the lights off).

Step One: Complete the LivingWell Promise, which includes answering a “series of questions about your current mental and physical well-being, your day-to-day lifestyle, and how you feel about your current health levels“. According to my Benefits Selection Guide: “all responses are strictly confidential……only Humana and HumanaVitality will have access to and be able to view your Health Assessment responses……the responses have no impact on rates or benefits under your health insurance plan.”

Step Two:  Keep my home address, phone numbers, work and personal e-mails up to date with the Kentucky Human Resource Information System.

According to my handy Benefits Selection Guide, the LivingWell Health Assessment will tell me what my true “Vitality Age” is, based on the answers to these unknown questions.  Then, because I need a nudge guidance and support to make the right choices, I can select certain “goals I want to work on and discover activities that will lead to a healthier lifestyle, improve my Vitality Age, and earn Vitality Points and rewards along the way.”

I already know what the Health Assessment will tell me–I’m too fat and I need to “get moving”.  And my plan options and benefits may not be affected now, but they will be.  They will be.

After I finished reading through my Benefits Selection Guide, I made bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy for dinner just to be rebellious. (That’s what we call living well where I’m from).

Part of me wants to take the LivingWell option just so I can expose what I am sure will be very intrusive questions. Plus, between me and mini-Belle, we can blow through a truckload of doctor visits in a year (legitimately) and having a set deductible for doctor visits would be tremendously helpful.

On the other hand, I want my privacy, damnit!  My soul needs to breathe, and signing a “promise” that has to do with such an intimate, private, and personal issue as my health, well-being, and lifestyle is abhorrent to me.

OK, world–what would you do in my situation?  Sign the promise, or start checking out nursing books from the public library? What say you?


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