According to data from the research firm Endeaver earlier this year, only 20% of people in the US currently have smart wearables, so it seems that wearables are not mainstream. However, the Pew Research Center predicts that wearable devices will become more popular in the next 10 years. A lot of health equipment will emerge at that time, track our movements, measure our breathing and heart rate, and tell us in advance whether the pressure is too high or if there are signs of illness through the corresponding APP.

In the future, companies can judge the health of employees based on health data on wearable devices. Based on this, employees who insist on healthy habits are guaranteed to purchase insurance; those who are unhealthy in living habits are punished. With specific health data, companies can make better judgments to better implement the Employee Health Plan. As the cost of health insurance increases, health wearables companies like Fitbit may be able to put the market in the field of health insurance or sell the bosses of companies.

Health-based wearable devices have powerful data monitoring capabilities that not only provide doctors with more detailed health data, but also sell data to United Health, Humana Group, Aetna (Aetna) Aetna) and similar health insurance companies, or self-insurance employers. They can use this data to evaluate policyholders. Forbes Health Edition senior author Matthew Herper said that in the next decade, health tracking devices may expand from the personal consumer market to the medical insurance sector, and may even subvert the existing medical insurance payment model.

Some tech-savvy business owners who are involved in the health field say that many insurance companies are now starting to worry about how to get health data from health tracking devices. Last year, Florian Gschwandtner, founder of the running recorder Runtastic, had talks with several US and Australian insurance companies. Later, he discovered that these insurance companies did not want to seek cooperation, but wanted to learn from them how to track user health information.

Pel. Healthcare analyst Kelly Barnes is very optimistic about the prospects of health tracking equipment. She said that the information tracked by these devices is very useful for insurance companies. He firmly believes that "it will not take long for health tracking equipment to 'enter' in the medical insurance field."

In fact, there are precedents for using smart devices in insurance assessment in the United States. Insurance company Progressive has launched the Snapshot program, which provides users who purchase auto insurance with a device that can track driving conditions. Progressive can know the driving status of the insured owner for one month based on the data tracked by the device, ensuring that the safe driving owner is buying auto insurance. You can enjoy a certain discount.

Barnes believes that this approach can also be used in the field of medical insurance. Barnes said that the common diseases like diabetes and obesity are the big ones for health care costs, and most of these diseases are caused by bad health habits. If health-wearable devices are used in the field of medical insurance, they should also be like car insurance: if you can maintain good health (ie, the health data reflected is good), the insured can buy medical insurance at a discounted price.