John Hancock Rewards Policyholders for Healthy Habits Through Points-Based Incentive Program
Why It Matters
A major life insurance company is deploying a points-and-rewards model to encourage policyholders to adopt healthier behaviors — a strategy that simultaneously aims to improve customer health outcomes and strengthen the insurer’s long-term financial position. The program raises broader questions about how private insurers can reshape health behavior in ways that public health programs have struggled to achieve.
What Happened
John Hancock’s Vitality program rewards life insurance policyholders with points for measurable healthy behaviors: gym visits, purchasing nutritious foods, tracking sleep, and completing preventive screenings. Those points translate into concrete perks, including discounts on smartwatches, retail gift cards, hotel deals, and savings on fruits and vegetables.
Customers advance through tiers — bronze, silver, gold, and platinum — as they accumulate and sustain healthy habits, mirroring the loyalty tier structures used by airlines and hotel chains. One feature policyholders can access after hitting activity benchmarks is a digital prize wheel, where the outcome is uncertain by design. Researchers say this element of unpredictability makes rewards more psychologically compelling than a flat cash benefit.
Company CEO Brooks Tingle has described the program as a fundamental reorientation of the life insurance business model — shifting focus from mortality planning toward what he calls living better. The financial rationale is straightforward: healthier customers pay premiums longer, which increases the company’s investment horizon and profitability.
By the Numbers
- Up to 25% in premium savings are available to Vitality enrollees, depending on the plan tier selected.
- Vitality members reportedly walk twice as many daily steps as the average American, according to data the company presented to Congress.
- Approximately half of members with elevated blood pressure brought their readings into a healthy range within one year of enrollment.
- The program covers access to hundreds of conditions through discounted advanced screening blood tests and MRI scans offered via partner organizations.
What the Experts Say
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, helped shape the program’s food-related incentive structure. He points to a growing body of research suggesting that financial incentives, when paired with game mechanics, are more effective at changing behavior than straightforward cash payments. The uncertainty of a variable reward, he argues, is a key driver of engagement.
Not all experts are fully convinced of the long-term impact. Dr. Samir Sinha, a geriatrician at Sinai Health System and the University Health Network in Toronto, cautions that the evidence linking rewards programs to extended lifespans remains limited. “If this can actually ingrain some healthy behaviors that become lifelong habits,” Sinha said, “this might actually create a longevity dividend.” He notes, however, that the concept borrows from an established model: auto insurers have offered reduced rates to drivers who consent to having their behavior monitored, and life insurers are now applying a similar logic.
Zoom Out
The Vitality program reflects a broader industry trend toward what is sometimes called “living benefits” in life insurance — moving the product beyond its traditional role as a death benefit and repositioning it as a tool for active health management. As diet-related chronic disease continues to burden the U.S. healthcare system, the question of whether private-sector incentive structures can accomplish what public health campaigns have not is drawing increased attention from policymakers and researchers alike. The intersection of technology, behavioral economics, and insurance is also prompting discussion about data privacy and whether health-tracking requirements could disadvantage higher-risk or lower-income applicants in future coverage decisions.
For some enrollees, the program has changed how they think about and discuss life insurance altogether. Financial planner Matt Hudack, a John Hancock policyholder, says he now has a staff member dedicated to Vitality clients and finds the product easier to introduce to customers who might otherwise resist conversations tied to end-of-life planning.
What’s Next
The program’s long-term efficacy in extending policyholder lifespans has not yet been established, and researchers say more longitudinal data is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn. John Hancock presented program results to the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health in 2025 during a hearing on modernizing American healthcare, signaling that insurers see a potential role for incentive-based models in broader health policy discussions. Whether other major life insurers adopt comparable programs may depend on the outcome of ongoing academic research into behavioral health incentives — a field that, as emerging technology raises new questions about institutional behavior, is drawing fresh scrutiny from multiple directions.