Employers Tell Workers To Get Healthy or Pay Up

[question everything]

The Wall Street Journal

Employers Tell Workers To Get Healthy or Pay Up
By VICTORIA E. KNIGHT
December 4, 2007; Page D4

In an effort to motivate workers to kick unhealthy habits, U.S. companies are hitting them where it hurts: in their wallets. Employers who provide health insurance often use financial incentives, such as contributions toward premiums, to encourage workers to participate in wellness programs like smoking-cessation courses.

Now some employers are wielding a stick as well as a carrot. Employees at some companies who are overweight, smoke, or have high cholesterol, for instance, and who don't participate in supplementary wellness programs, will pay more for health insurance. In extreme cases, employees' insurance deductibles could rise by $2,000. But meddling in workers' lifestyles through financial penalties risks lawsuits, say some consultants and lawyers. Indeed, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says it is looking into wellness programs to see if they sometimes violate the Americans with Disabilities Act.


Starting in 2008, Tribune Co., which owns newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and the Baltimore Sun, will apply a monthly surcharge of $100 to family premiums of workers or dependents who use tobacco. Clarian Health, an Indianapolis-based hospital chain, will charge employees who are smokers $5 a paycheck. Small employers, who are the most at risk from rising health costs, have gone the furthest in forcing unhealthy employees to pay more for insurance, as they struggle to continue providing coverage.

In most states, people with health problems already pay more for health policies in the individual insurance market. But for employer-sponsored plans, federal law dictates that all workers covered under the same plan must pay the same premium irrespective of their health. Recent legislation granted some exceptions to this standard through the vehicle of wellness programs. Starting in 2008, Kellogg Co., the Battle Creek, Mich., cereal giant, will raise premiums for salaried and non-union employees by $360. But it will also offer what it describes as financial incentives to employees who take a voluntary health risk assessment and participate in wellness programs.

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URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119674051866712859.html (subscription)

(Another reason to get employers out of the health insurance)

[Trillo]

1. That's all corporations understand, "wallets".

Yeah, go ahead, "hit" your employees "hard" (in the wallet), perhaps you should also lobby for a lower minimum wage while you're at it, cause anything good for the bottom line is good for the corporation.

Bet they're not hitting their CEO and other executives as hard, relatively speaking.

[Union Thug]

2. Workers to Employers - F*** Off and stay the hell out of our private lives

Although corporations ARE private tyrannies, they don't own us (as much as they would love to).

The next step is denying coverage or 'hitting hard' based on genetic predisposition. Wait and see.

[Mythsaje]

3. Theft by any other name. n/t