Big Brother in the Supermarket

Safeway announced a new plan to cut employee healthcare costs. For those employees who sign up, their food and in-store purchasing habits will be analyzed on a month-to-month basis, with employees who engage in 'healthy buying patterns' receiving discounts in their health insurance rates. Sounds great, right? It encourages healthy lifestyles and rewards societally-beneficial behavior.

Wrong. This is (Yet another) version of Big Brother, being played out in a supermarket near you. If the end goal is to reduce the healthcare expense for Safeway and its employees, base the rates upon semi-annual physicals with rebates and discounts for healthy choices (gym memberships, etc). By monitoring eating patterns, as opposed to physical results (and no-one'd cheat the system and drive down the street to munch on a pack of Ho-Ho's or Twinkies).

But this way's easier. They can use their existing customer management systems at little additional cost. They can take a P.R. 'Praise Bath' in public acclaim. They can lower their healthcare costs.

And their employees can lost another bit of privacy in their lives.

-Shawn