If this needs to be under the Second Amendment section, I apologize. It seemed as much medical/insurance as it did 2A, so I called it in the air.

I got a card from Blue Cross my insurer saying that if I took their wellness survey, they would reimburse me for $100 worth of co-pays this year. So I registered at the website and started the survey. It got a little intrusive when asking about alcohol consumption with words like "always and never" rather than "sometimes or rarely". Then we went to seatbelt questions. After that on the next page where it asked if I ever had more than two drinks in a five hour periiod, drove after drinking (at all), or rode with someone who drove after drinking (at all), there it was. "Do you have firearms in the home?" So one can infer that on a health and safety basis, BC/BS rates firearms with DUI/DWI type behaviors.

I backed out of the survey without completing it. As far as I am concerned they can take the $100, set it on fire, and put it where the sun does not shine.

I am really posting this because all of us would pick up on this question in the survey. One of our spouses, working to save money, might not. It will be used against us eventually. It sure looks like a boundary violation to me.

At this point I can't complain online. To "correspond" with them you have to have a PIN. I signed up for the online access today and they mail the PIN. I have to wait for that. You can take the wellness survey without the PIN; you can't do anything else.

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S&WCA 1729

Or you could just answer 'no' and take their $100.

I applaud your refusal to continue participating in this invasive, prying survey, which you can bet would never accrue to your benefit, and likely would cost you more in future premiums than the $100 spiff offered for admitting your "risky" behaviors.

On edit, let's just say, for the sake of argument, that I'm mistaken (please suspend disbelief), and that BC/BS may actually give you a discount for being habitually armed and able to resist assaults and avoid expensively treated injuries and so forth. It may be informative, even entertaining, to pose this question to the inquisitors...

When I was asked this question because my employer switched to Blue Cross, it was at my son's 6 month check up. I did not answer, but since I had the chance, I asked why that was even on there. What I was told was that it had to do with my son, and that if he showed any signs of homicidal or suicidal behavior, the doctor's office would have to notify the authorities because there were guns in the home. My response, since my son was only 6 months old, was that if he was showing homicidal or suicidal tendencies at his age was that I needed an exorcist, not a cop. I also politely told them that it was none of their business what was in my home and for them to go pound sand.

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Vaya con Dios

Hey Burt, did they ask anything about driving through Nebraska at night with me?

If I answered that honestly, I wouldn't get any insurance. It should have asked, "Have you ever had two drinks in five seconds?". Hah, obviously, they don't hang out with the same class of men and woman that I hang out with. I score 100% on Jeff Foxworthy's, "you might be a redneck".

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beaver

When I get my PIN and can correspond, I will ask that.

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S&WCA 1729

I will play Devil's advocate. If I were your insurance company, I would think that it was absolutely my business if you drive even after one drink. Or if you ride with people who drive after even one drink. Insurance companies deal in statistics. I will bet that, statistically speaking, people who do not have firearms in the home rarely are killed in accidental shootings in their home. I would also think that a combination of firearms and alcohol in the home might increase the chances of an accidental shooting. I would think that someone who has more than two drinks in a five hour period would be much more likely, statistically speaking remember, to drive under the influence, or shoot himself or a family member accidentally, than someone who doesn't drink at all, or who never has more than one drink.

I wouldn't have answered their questions either.

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Georgia On My Mind

I could see your argument were it my liability/auto insurer. This was however my medical, but only for another 18 months.

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S&WCA 1729

OH I'm ab so lute ly gonna admit to DWI.

My wifes insurer had a program like this last year,e filled out online forms, listened to a 4 part talk about various health related issues, answered some general questions to prove we listened; got $300/each!!!

This yr they changed it to say we have to have a physical from our Family doctor. That will cost us $175. each as we have a high co-pay.

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UNDER THE CONE OF SILENCE

This is not a boundary violation as there is no physician/patient relationship involved. This is a business transaction where someone is offering to buy from you for certain consideration. You are free to do as you want.

Bob

We all need to remember we are living in an "Information Age". Every transaction, every form we complete can and probably will be entered into a computer somewhere. The question is who will access that information and why. This ranges from our buying habits to political beliefs. Read Orwell's 1984 and remember there is no such thing as an "innocent" survey. They all want something so be skeptical, very skeptical.

This "profiling" may lead to a practice called "diagnostic underwriting" and yes, you can rest assured it might all be factored into your premiums at some point whether in a group or as an individual.

Information is also purchased from other vendors who've captured your buying habits such as credit card purchases at the liquor store, gun shop, motorcycle shop, flying lessons, etc.

Big Brother is alive and well.

And I did. I inferred "boundary" as it appeared out of bounds for a medical type survey.

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S&WCA 1729

But if they are killed in teh home, they arn't going to need the insurance anyway!!!

Big Brother was the government, not an insurance company.

When I hire a man to work for me, there are certain things I want to know about his drinking habits and drug use. It is his right not to answer these questions, and my right not to hire him.

My brother was in the insurance business. He told me of one prospective client who wanted him to insure a storage building. The client became livid when my brother asked what was stored in the building, and what uses besides storage the building would have. He told my brother it was none of his business. My brother told him fine, go find another insurer.

Drinking and driving habits are certainly the business of a medical insurer. Presumably, you would expect your insurance to pay if you were hospitalized as a result of an automobile accident. Drinking habits can have other negative influences on health. I understand how you consider questions about firearms in the home as intrusive, but not questions about alcohol consumption.

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Georgia On My Mind

I agree that they have every right to ask the question, and the OP has every right to do business somewhere else. My beef with the survey would be the answers of "Always" or "Never" without any gray area in between. If you drank and drove once when in high school, you can't answer never, even if you've been dry for forty years since.

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Insert short witty words here

You misunderstood. My objection, as I said in my original post, was to the "do you own firearms" question being in the middle of DUI/DWI type questions, thus presenting the appearance of equating firearms ownership with with DUI type behaviors/habits. However, I do consider terms like "always and never" to be, at best, poorly considered in a survey.

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S&WCA 1729

My mistake and I've got to watch that. I've spent my life in the business and tend to interpret terms within very narrow definitions as they are used in the industry.

In any event, declining to answer is the right thing to do. We often forget who's the customer and calls the shots when in the doctor's office.

Bob

Wait until we have a single payer government system. Then if you fabricate an answer you can go to jail like Martha Stewart for providing false information to the government.

Oh No, I told my doctor that I shoot rattlesnakes, with out hearing protection.

Either I hear the snake, or I hear the boom.

I am carrying a .22 LR now days.

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My Mother likes me.

Pick up a set of electronic hearing protectors. You will hear the rattle better and the boom less.