How I responded to my health insurance company's survey

(I'm SURE you guys are sick of me talking about health insurance reform, but unfortunately I won't be sick of it until it's DONE.)

My health insurance company, CIGNA, actually asked for feedback today! One of their non-multiple-choice questions was: "Please tell us how we could improve our service." And so I did indeed take a moment to tell them. Here was my answer.

Tip #1: You could include information as to whether you cover yearly physicals or not CLEARLY in your policy materials.

Maybe you already do include such information, but I read through the ENTIRE policy AND website and could not find anything on it, so either it's not even there, or it's worded in such fine print or so vaguely that it's easily overlooked. This is what necessitated the call in the first place.

Tip #2: You could cover yearly physicals.

Your motto starts: "Think well. Live well." Presumably, being a health insurance company, this refers to the health of your customers. And presumably you "care" about the health of your customers, since your other motto is "A business of caring." Well, did you know that preventative care is crucial in preserving one's health? Doctors recommend yearly check-ups in order to catch problems right when they start so they don't have a chance to become major problems. I'm suspicious that you actually may not "care" whether or not your customers catch health problems before they become debilitating or, god forbid, fatal.

Tip #3: Your customer service representatives could admit to the real reason behind not covering yearly physicals.

I actually said to your customer service representative, "What ever happened to preventative care?" And she merely responded, like an automaton with only pre-programmed answers, that you could "only cover what the policy covers," which obviously doesn't even answer the question. The correct answer is: "We don't cover yearly physicals because if we did, it would eat into our profit margin." I would have been much more satisfied had I gotten the truth from your "representative" rather than a canned answer.

Cut to: the poor survey statistics person who has to read this. They roll their eyes, thinking "not another one" and click "delete".