Who doesn’t want an Apple Watch? But they’re not cheap this piece of high-tech wristwear will set you back $300, easy.
But what if your health insurance bought it for you?
It could happen — especially if Apple Inc. can make people see the watch as a health and wellness tool, according to an article at The Motley Fool. Then, it might make sense for insurers to subsidize or even supply the product to plan members.
The Motley Fool article says that if insurers did get in on Apple Watches, a prime candidate might be Connecticut’s Aetna Inc. which is trying to buy Louisville’s Humana Inc. . Aetna already subsidizes other healthy behaviors, such as paying huge chunks of monthly gym dues for some members because those members are healthier and less likely to draw on insurance for care.
And Aetna is a fan of using tech to track health metrics company employees can earn hundreds of dollars by logging their nightly sleep with fitness trackers.
Now, Apple just needs to apply that logic to the Apple Watch. According to The Motley Fool article, it would cost insurers less than $100 per person per year to “fully cover the cost of a new Apple Watch every four years or so. That seems like a fairly manageable hurdle for Apple to reach in terms of reducing the cost of care.”
“If the Apple Watch can reduce the cost of health care by making individuals more aware of their health and helping doctors identify problems early, it would make financial sense for the likes of UnitedHealth and Aetna to subsidize Apple Watch purchases,” according to The Motley Fool report. “In a best-case scenario, insurers could even distribute Apple Watches as part of their health plans.”
The watch would track the user’s nutrition, steps, heart rate, exercise and other health metrics. That could reduce the total amount insurers pay for those members’ health care because the members would be more aware of their health and could help their doctors find problems early.
Seems like a win-win: Members get a free or subsidized smart watch and health insurers get to cut costs.
But pushing the watch as a health tool could be good for Apple, too, according to the report. Some analysts already have predicted that Apple will sell 25 percent fewer units this year than last year, when the watch debuted.
“But if big health insurers like UnitedHealth and Aetna covered most or all of the cost, consumer interest would grow rapidly,” according to The Motley Fool report. “This could eventually make the Apple Watch just as ubiquitous as the iPhone.”
Date: April 19, 2016