Sunday, March 3, 2013

Grocery loyalty card purchases surveilled by insurance companies to raise rates and deny claims

(NaturalNews) I warned Natural News readers about this years ago: those grocery store "loyalty cards" that they push on you to enjoy discounts on groceries are actually a behavior surveillance technology that's used to capture and profile your grocery purchasing patterns. This data is then sold off to insurance companies who use it to raise your rates by linking your grocery purchases with the risk of disease.

Buying a lot of ice cream? You're more likely to be obese and diabetic.

Purchasing a lot of processed meats and homogenized milk? You're more likely to develop cardiovascular disease.

Bringing home a lot of processed food with additives, chemical sweeteners and chemical preservatives? You're far more likely to get cancer.

Health insurance companies are now using this data to develop these sorts of "risk profiles" of individual consumers. And it's all enabled because people are so incredibly obedient that they actually fill out their real names and addresses on these grocery loyalty cards. Health insurance companies simply use credit reporting databases to link your grocery loyalty card account number to your health insurance account number, and from there, your insurance rates can be adjusted based on what you buy to eat.

Even worse, they can use this data to deny your health insurance claims. For example, if you get diagnosed with cancer, your health insurance company can look through your grocery purchasing history and show that you bought processed meat products containing cancer-causing sodium nitrite. They can use this data to deny payment on your claims and push the blame on YOU for living a "cancer lifestyle."

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