Wednesday 6 April 2016

John Hancock launches Vitality 2.0, rewarding life insurance consumers for healthy eating

As many of you know, John Hancock introduced the Vitality program to the US Life insurance market a year ago this month. At its core, the program offers discounts and earns points for healthy living. It is a program that has been offered for over 15 years in other markets, originating in South Africa. The program is exclusive, in the US Life insurance market, to John Hancock.

Today Hancock make another major announcement in enhancing the program and it directly, and positively, affects the health and pocketbooks of their customers.

The core of the new program is a partnership with major grocery chains, headlined by Walmart. Hancock Vitality members will get discounts, up to $600 per year, on health foods when they participate in the program, as well as points in the program that could reduce their premium up to 15%. This is measureable money and can go far towards offsetting the cost of the insurance. The real benefit, though, is continuing to encourage healthy living. In the case of Walmart, and likely other groceries, the savings are printed on the receipt, so the customer can be immediately aware of their savings.

Policyholders also gain access to nutrition information, at no charge, from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University.

Just last week, a study was released that for the first time, the number of people in the world that are obese outnumber those that are under weight.

The study also shows that China and the US have more obese people than any other countries. Given the disparity in population, this confirms what we already know – Americans are dangerously overweight.

While we would not expect that this program alone will have a measurable impact on obesity in the general population, it certainly can for Hancock’s policy holders.

For more information, see John Hancock’s press release. We will be watching this development closely as it takes off.



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