A life insurance company turns healthy habits into a game: NPR

Many people intend to eat well and exercise as soon as they wake up in the morning. But then that day goes away from them. Feeling familiar? Now, one life insurance company is betting that gift cards, rewards cycles and fitness streaks can help bridge that gap.

Life Life insurance company John Hancock’s program awards policyholders points for healthy behaviors like going to the gym, buying healthy food, tracking sleep, preventive checkups and checkups. Points translate into tangible benefits like a new smartwatch, Amazon or Starbucks gift cards, hotel deals, savings at retail stores, and discounts on fruit and vegetable purchases.

“I’ve already got 5,400 points. I’m silver, getting close to gold,” said financial planner and John Hancock policyholder Matt Hudack, scrolling through his app. As an outdoor enthusiast, he loves REI discounts. “It’s a really good incentive.”

Just as airlines give their regular travelers more rewards the more they fly, customers enrolled in the Vitality program advance in levels from bronze to platinum as they form and maintain healthy habits. One of Hudack’s favorite features is the digital reward wheel that he can spin after reaching activity benchmarks. “Traveling is fun,” he said.

Converting “Death Insurance” into a Living Benefit

John Hancock CEO brooks tingle says the program reflects a deliberate change in the way it thinks about its core business.

“We call it the life insurance business,” he says. But the reality is that for hundreds of years the focus was on death. “It was all about, hey, you’re going to die, you better be prepared,” says Tingle. “What we’ve done is literally change that. It’s about living, and living better.”

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The company’s logic is simple. Healthy customers live longer, pay premiums longer and are more profitable. “The longer we are able to collect and invest premiums, the more money we will make,” Tingle said. “You want to live a long, healthy life? It’s good for us, too.”

He says there is a very good fit between the company’s earnings and what is beneficial to its customers.

A new way to “gamify” good health

cardiologist Dr. Dariush MozaffarianThe director of the Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University collaborated with John Hancock on the program’s dietary promotion. He says a game-like structure can help keep people engaged.

“The exciting thing about gamification is that it’s not just about the dollar amount, it’s about making it fun and exciting and offering rewards,” Mozaffarian says. “Growing evidence shows that it actually works quite well.”

The psychology of uncertainty also matters. “If you just say you’re going to give someone $10, they’ll probably shrug,” he said. “But if you tell them there’s a game and maybe they’ll win $10, maybe they’ll win a $20 card, then it becomes really exciting and people really respond well to that.”

Mozaffarian advised John Hancock on how to structure its food-related promotions, including discounts on fruits and vegetables. He points to research showing that Financial incentives can effectively promote healthy eating habits At a time when diet-related illness is widespread.

Behavior change is complex

In a statement to the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health in 2025, during a hearing on modernizing American health care, Tingle described some early results. Vitality Member walk twice as many steps every day As an average American, he told lawmakers. And about half of the members with high blood pressure brought their levels into a healthy range within a year.

John Hancock also partners with companies that offer advanced screening testing, giving members access to early detection blood tests and MRI scans that can screen for hundreds of conditions.

That said, it’s still early days in terms of determining whether rewards programs and financial incentives will translate into longer lives. Dr. Sameer SinhaA geriatrician and aging specialist at Mount Sinai Health System and University Health Network in Toronto.

“There’s not enough evidence right now to say that these types of programs are really going to have the intended impact of helping people live longer and healthier lives,” Sinha said. “However, if it can really incorporate some healthy behaviors that become lifelong habits, it could really yield long-term dividends,” he said.

Sinha says the concept is not entirely new. Car insurers have long been offering lower rates to drivers who allow their habits to be tracked to show that they are safe drivers. “It is now being brought into life insurance,” he said.

Customers who enroll in the Vitality program can get lower premiums with savings of up to 25%, depending on The version of the program they selected For. And that could be another financial stimulus.

a different conversation

For Hudack, the program has yielded unexpected business benefits. As a financial planner, he says life insurance can be a serious topic to bring up with clients because it’s a reminder of mortality. Now he has something more exciting to offer. “They like the idea that their life insurance is now a tool for living a healthy life,” he says.

It is no longer just a reminder that they will die one day. He now has a staff member in his office dedicated to serving Vitality customers.

On Monday morning, Hudack checks his app and sees that his activity counter has been reset to zero, but that doesn’t discourage him. Instead, it serves as a signal.

“I have to move on,” he says. “It starts again this morning.”