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Health Insurers Pay Facebook Gamers Virtual Currency To Oppose Reform Bill
- anigbrowl 17y agothere's something particularly barf-worthy about not only renting a mob to advance your political agenda, but paying them with play money into the bargain.
- gfodor 17y agoWow, and so the circle of evil is now complete.
- amalcon 17y agoHow do they know that the players are actually writing letters? How do they know they don't just click "Yeah, sure, I wrote it. Now, where's my [virtual currency]?" I suspect the number of people doing this would rather dwarf the number of people who actually bother to write letters.
- Deestan 17y agoFrom the article: > Instead of asking the gamers to try a product the way Netflix would, "Get Health Reform Right" requires gamers to take a survey, which, upon completion, automatically sends the following email to their Congressional Rep: > "I am concerned a new government plan could cause me to lose the employer coverage I have today. More government bureaucracy will only create more problems, not solve the ones we have."
- orangecat 17y agoUgh. I don't support the proposed plan, but protecting "employer coverage" is just about the worst possible reason to oppose it. Why should my employer have anything to do with my health insurance, any more than they do with my housing or auto expenses? In fact, much of my opposition to Obama's plan is that it strengthens that foolish and harmful dependency.
- icey 17y agoJust a minor nit, there is no such thing as "Obama's" plan. There is a House bill and a Senate bill (currently under review for amendments), and he hasn't endorsed either yet.
- walkon 17y agoIf health benefits didn't have tax breaks, employers would probably stop giving them and would be able to pay a bit more in salary (benefit cost - increased taxes). I personally would prefer to be paid more and use that to select my own health plan, that way it would be portable.
- potatolicious 17y agoExcept non-employer health plans rarely cover pre-existing conditions, which ultimately is what ails most people and contributes most to prolonged suffering in quality of life. I'm of the opposite opinion, having grown up in Canada (now in the US). I'd much rather have a public plan, even if it means worse care for a moderately well-to-do individual like myself. The whole American health care debate appears to me as a matter of the haves vs. the have-nots, with the added complexity that a lot of have-nots seem to incorrectly identify themselves as haves.
- orangecat 17y agoExcept non-employer health plans rarely cover pre-existing conditions, which ultimately is what ails most people and contributes most to prolonged suffering in quality of life. There definitely needs to be a solution for those who are uninsurable, but employer coverage is a lousy mechanism for that. I'd much rather have a "public option" that charges a reasonable multiple of what the premium for a healthy person would be. That would ensure that you could always get coverage, and provide a guaranteed ceiling on your expenses.
- walkon 17y agoThe game would be significantly changed if employers stopped offering it as part of a benefit package. I'm sure the housing hazard insurance industry would look much different if it was a standard employment benefit. Ultimately, insurance of any kind is a financial risk mitigation pool. The financial risks are spread over those in the pool instead of just one. Everyone in the pool shares the cost of everyone else. I don't want the government creating a super large public pool that I am required to pay for, even if I'm allowed to choose not to be a member of it.
- amalcon 17y agoWell, I doubt that would work too well either. A rash of e-mails of the same general form will probably be attributed to a few spammers spoofing return addresses, rather than to a genuine movement. These people probably get spam about political issues all the time.
- jcromartie 17y agoWhen the article says: > Zynga has since removed all offers from its games Does that mean that other games are still participating?
- Vindexus 17y agoYes. They probably don't know it though as the ads are run through a third party, such as Gambit, OfferPal or SuperRewards.
- julio_the_squid 17y agoIn related news, Health Insurers Pay Congress Members Actual Currency To Oppose Reform Bill.
- patrickgzill 17y agoFake money for fake outrage ... has a certain insane consistency.
- DanielBMarkham 17y agoPaying for outrage is not new. I used to work in D.C. and almost every week there were ads in the paper for protesters. As I remember, it was relatively good pay if you were of college age. But virtual money for emails? I have to say I like it. Now everybody can be fake outraged. Or maybe I should say I'm outraged?