Wearable technology was the buzzword of 2013. The Google Glass project made the idea that wearables were going to be part of our daily routines seem possible. Sadly, for Google the Glass project appears to be struggling (if it’s not already dead) thanks to the fact that people won’t wear glasses that make them look silly. However, wearable technology is still very much of interest.
Wearable Technology To Date
Wearable technology has come very far in a few short years. Even a decade ago it seemed utterly far-fetched that we could mould computers to our bodies and take advantage of their processing power in our ordinary lives.
However, despite the progress in the technology… the public hasn’t really taken a shine to wearable computing just yet. Smartwatches which were the most obvious development of wearable computing have been launched by Motorola, Samsung and Apple among others but they haven’t captured the imagination. That’s because they’re all a bit ugly. We don’t think that’s going to last; the truth is that now the technology works well the aesthetic elements will follow quickly.
That means millions of new users will start using wearable technology over the coming decades. That’s in addition to the estimated 7 million or so people in the UK who already use wearable technology to some extent in their daily lives.
Wearable Technology and Insurance Premium Parity
One of the main uses of wearable technology is health monitoring. Smartphones, smartwatches and numerous other bands and gadgets can monitor your heart rate, your blood pressure, your blood sugar, just how much exercise you’ve done today and much more.
This is data that may make health insurance a much fairer proposition in the future. Today, your health insurance quote is most likely to be inspired by general data gleaned on an average of people like you who inhabit the same postcode as you do. The trouble with this is it’s a one-size fits all policy; the vegan, exercise fanatic who has never smoked is going to be taking on some of the risk for their neighbour’s 60 a day, pie eating, couch surfing habits. That’s not very fair.
Insurers know this and it’s to their advantage to enable low risk insured parties to take up services at a lower premium. That’s why we’d expect to see a lot of partnerships in the future between health insurers and wearables manufacturers.
The more health data that they can collect; the fairer private health premiums will be. That’s because they will more accurately represent the risk that the insured party represents. So it might be time to give up smoking, start that diet and start exercising if you want to keep your health insurance premiums to a minimum.
