NYTIMES: Congress Plans Incentives for Healthy Habits
In its effort to overhaul health care, Congress is planning to give employers sweeping new authority to reward employees for healthy behavior, including better diet, more exercise, weight loss and smoking cessation.
A web of federal rules limits what employers and insurers can do now.
Congress is seriously considering proposals to provide tax credits or other subsidies to employers who offer wellness programs that meet federal criteria. In addition, lawmakers said they would make it easier for employers to use financial rewards or penalties to promote healthy behavior among employees.
Two Democratic senators working on comprehensive health legislation, Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Finance Committee, and Tom Harkin of Iowa, have taken the lead in devising such incentives. ... The White House agrees. One of President Obama’s eight principles for health legislation is that it must “invest in prevention and wellness,” ...
Under Mr. Harkin’s proposal, employers could obtain tax credits for programs that offer periodic screenings for health problems and counseling to help employees adopt healthier lifestyles. Programs could focus on tobacco use, obesity, physical fitness, nutrition and depression, he said
... Critics say that holding people financially responsible for their health behavior is potentially unfair and that employers have no business prying into their employees’ private lives.
Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, a research and advocacy group, said financial rewards and penalties were often a form of lifestyle discrimination. “You are supposed to be paid on the basis of how you do your job, not how often you go to the gym or how many cheeseburgers you eat,” Mr. Maltby said.
- POLITICIANS AND BUREAUCRATS AND BOSSES HAVE NO RIGHT TO TELL ME OR ANYBODY ELSE WHAT TO EAT, WEIGH - OR WHETHER WE SHOULD SMOKE OR DRINK OR EXERCISE.
- IT VIOLATES MY RIGHT TO PRIVACY.
- THAT'S A RIGHT THAT THE LEFT USED TO LIKE.
- I GUESS THEY LIKE THE NANNYSTATE MORE.
2 comments:
It's this kind of stuff that scares me. As it is now I have asthma that is pretty controlled--except when my husbands employee insurance sends me out nit picky stuff about things my doctor ought to check and things I should avoid--25% of asthma is anxiety--their little fliers and suggestions that they can have a nurse work with me for better asthma control--you'd think I'd gone to the er every month for an attack instead of never--the nanny state butting in all the time will make many less likely to see their doctor
Same old health management crap from the Left. Just like Hitler!
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