Question: Mandatory Blood test by the Insurance Company

The situation: Her Husband works for the City. They just received a notice that all of the spouses of the covered employees MUST show up, as in mandatory, for a meeting with the Health Care insurer for a question and answer session and then give a blood sample.

So, with that as the situation. Her question to my wife was; Why do they want a blood sample from the spouses?

I don't know anything further than what she told my wife. So I think that what I am asking for is this.

“If your spouse has HIV, don’t you think your health insurance company has the right to use that info in deciding the amount of your premium?”

I didn’t say it was either a good policy or a bad policy. I(1) said I’d never heard of it before, and (2) implied that Big Brother is intrusive.

When a government negotiates insurance premiums for a group, each individual employee is not reviewed on a case-by-case basis. At least, that was the case when I was involved in negotiations.

My personal first thought was that they were going to to do DNA checking for genetic diseases and use that as a reason to put the Employees on a ‘first to layoff’ list.

I'm going through roughly the same thing (although no blood tests, not yet) with my employer. Currently, there's a "wellness program" that we get some hard armtwisting to participate in. Next year, we've been told that we'll have mandatory screening, and a 'life coach' (read: company-approved nanny) will "help" us with areas in which we're found lacking.

I'm looking for another job.

But, to the point, although we've been assured that all results are completely confidential (then, how would the company know that we need a 'life coach', or even if we're seeing one? I asked, and was told that I asked too many questions), I had exactly the same thoughts as you. Not healthy enough? That'll get you on the short list when layoffs come. Particularly if there's someone in the dept who has the same qualifications, but ISN'T on statins, or blood pressure meds, or something.

If you’re marking “no” to things like HIV and cancer, or not listing those types of things, the blood test is to verify that you’re telling the truth or not withholding information.

It would be very tempting for someone who is in the beginning stages of cancer to sign up for insurance and then afterward say “Oops - what are the chances of that?”

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