{"id":3808,"date":"2008-12-14T12:56:23","date_gmt":"2008-12-14T17:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=3808"},"modified":"2008-12-14T12:56:23","modified_gmt":"2008-12-14T17:56:23","slug":"obese-smoke-do-not-pass-go-do-not-collect-200","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=3808","title":{"rendered":"Obese? Smoke? Do Not Pass Go. Do Not Collect $200."},"content":{"rendered":"

As long as health insurance is predominantly accessed through a third-party payer – employers – most Americans will have to rely on their them to shop for them. This has been a great deal for those who suffer from preexisting\u00a0conditions as the insurance provider takes on the employer group in toto.<\/p>\n

It’s also been a great deal for those whose conditions are of their own volition, or lack thereof as it were, as they are able to average in their morbidity and get a break.<\/p>\n

Politicians talk of a health care crisis and how a country as prosperous as ours should not allow anyone to be without health care. It’s a right, not a privilege; a matter of dignity.<\/p>\n

Fact is, our national health care “crisis” is not being caused solely by the insurance companies, nor the current delivery system but rather by the insureds themselves. In a way, our prosperity is our downfall. Everyone can afford Twinkies and smokes.<\/p>\n

Experts say that upwards of 40 percent of U.S. medical costs are linked to obesity, smoking and other lifestyle factors — a statistic not lost on the nation’s employers. As a result, more than half of large corporations now use incentives to get employees to shape up, a 2008 survey found.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

America is fat, and still surprisingly smoky too. Health insurers have been prodding consumers to get off their duffs, join clubs and live healthier lifestyles to no avail. Have you seen the insipid television commercials?<\/p>\n

Now employers want a crack at it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sheila Kromer doesn’t want any help.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She enjoys smoking and she doesn’t want to quit.<\/p>\n

Nor does she want advice on how to eat right. Or how to exercise. “I’m smart enough to take care of myself,” she says.<\/p>\n

As a chemist at 3M, she’s had plenty of chances to join health and fitness programs on the job. But like many Minnesotans, she’s simply chosen not to.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Smart is as smart does. As it stands Sheila, you’re a jackass, and you’re gonna pay for it. Now<\/em> and later.<\/p>\n

As health care in America evolves, I predict consumers will have more choice via HSA’s, innovation, and an opening of the third-party payer choke. Competition and consumer selection will force providers to lower costs and increase service, coverage and quality.<\/p>\n

It will be a great day for those of us that take care of ourselves and make good choices…but a very bad day for Sheila.<\/p>\n

When you buy life insurance, if your “build” ratios are off, your cholesterol and triglycerides are high and you smoke, you will pay a higher premium, if you are accepted at all. If your car seems to find its way to stationery objects more often than your peers, you will pay a higher premium, if you are accepted at all.<\/p>\n

But if you are obese and smoke, and work for a large enough employer, you pay the same premium as the rest of your coworkers. You pay less than you should and the healthy ones pay more<\/em> than they should. Sound familiar?<\/p>\n

As more and more Sheila’s show up looking for work, employers have figured out that while they can’t fire Sheila for being a health care time bomb, they can encourage her to make better choices to lower her coworkers, employer’s, and our economy’s health care burden.<\/p>\n

At a growing number of workplaces, employees are paying a price for refusing to take part in wellness programs. Some face hundreds of dollars a year in higher costs for health insurance. Some are missing out on cash and gifts used to reward their colleagues — not for their work, but for the way they eat, exercise and conduct their lives.<\/p>\n

Once, on-site gyms and Weight Watchers classes were viewed as perks. But now, many employers see wellness programs as their best weapon in the war on health costs.<\/p>\n

At 3M, General Mills and many other Twin Cities worksites, employees can earn up to $100 in cash or shave hundreds of dollars off their health insurance if they (and sometimes their spouses) take a “health risk assessment” — a detailed survey of their personal health habits.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What a concept. Accountability. Liberals would say government is the solution. Universal health care! But employers aren’t waiting around for Obama’s Liberal League to take over yet another industry.<\/p>\n

“I really think it’s an encroachment on our freedoms and our choices in life,” said Kromer, 50, of White Bear Lake. “They should not be able to tell me what I can and cannot do off of work time.”<\/p>\n

Last month, she turned down the $100 incentive at 3M to fill out a health survey.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sheila is also free to not work for 3M and she is free to pay for her own health insurance. Her coworkers and employer should be free to not pay for her “freedoms” to burden our health care system with type-2 diabetes and lung cancer.<\/p>\n

As a smoker, she worries that the information might be used against her. “If I ever had to fill one out, I’m going to be real honest with you,” she confesses. “I would lie.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…and pretty soon employers will look for nicotine when they do a drug test. Plus, it’s pretty hard to lie about obesity.<\/p>\n

For the time being the incentives are small but expect employers to up the ante if they see results.<\/p>\n

“When you have your employer kind of dictating how to live your life, it’s kind of a scary thing,” said Shawn Gertken, 35, a government worker in Wabasha County. “Where does it all end? Pretty soon they’re going to be after you if you choose to ride a motorcycle after work.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They might if you aren’t smart enough to wear a helmet, Future-Head-Injury-Guy.<\/p>\n

It’s no surprise, then, that, many businesses are losing patience footing the bill for preventable diseases, says Susan Relland, a Washington, D.C., attorney who specializes in health law. “Just running the math, they realize that the health of their employees is having a very direct financial impact on the company.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Imagine if we had Universal Health Care, run by the Federal Government; no competition and mandated participation. Now imagine a liberal administration and Congress asking American’s to get off their big rear ends, start exercising and stop smoking.<\/p>\n

Never.<\/p>\n

Liberals have gained a great deal of power in the last fifty years by catering to the results of poor decision-making both personal and corporate and they’re not about to relinquish it now.<\/p>\n

Didn’t save for retirement? Social security.<\/p>\n

Your baby is inconvenient? Government subsidized abortions.<\/p>\n

Can’t pay your bills? How about a mortgage?<\/p>\n

Can’t find work? The government will hire you, two by two. One to dig a hole, the other to fill it in.<\/p>\n

Ran your industry into the ground on the backs of the UAW? Here’s a bailout check from G.W. Bush on his way out the door.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Capitalism isn’t perfect either but there are far more examples where it has worked than where government has.<\/p>\n

Giving employers and consumers choice, while holding them accountable to their own decision-making is the only way to solve our nation’s health care crisis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As long as health insurance is predominantly accessed through a third-party payer – employers – most Americans will have to rely on their them to shop for them. This has been a great deal for those who suffer from preexisting\u00a0conditions as the insurance provider takes on the employer group in toto. It’s also been a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitalism-v-socialism","category-health-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}