What’s Wrong With Me? You Might Be Lonely As we all knew, being sad, anxious, lonely is bad for our health. People who are lonely live shorter lives and are more at risk for chronic illnesses like heart disease, depression, and dementia. Weirdly, even with so many on-line connections, a full fifth of Americans feel lonely. Ways to feel less isolated and lonely? Connecting into your ‘real community,’ yet that can be challenging for many, especially older people or people who don’t have a lot of extra time. So health insurance companies are adding ‘togetherness’ care plans which help connect patients with services and, well, help them feel less lonely! Why are insurance companies doing this? (You know there is a bottom line reason ...) Turns out if you treat Loneliness like a chronic condition, you can reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions—hence saving the insurance companies loads of money. So this is a story of ‘doing well by doing good.’ Selected Excerpt: "For too long issues like social connection have been looked at as soft subjects—the stuff that we'll get to if we can get to it, after we get people the procedures and medications they need...” …see more