Your Employer Wants You to Be Healthy
May 27, 2009 by Cherie Burbach
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
When did health benefits get to be such a dirty couple of words? It used to be that employers would eagerly provide health and insurance coverage for their employees. Then, people actually started using it and getting sick. Then, costs went up. The more people that got sick, the more companies had to kick in.
Now, Congress is trying to encourage “wellness” over health benefits. Wellness means getting in shape and preventing illness. Senator Tom Harkin is one of the leaders in the health reform debate, and “recently proposed giving tax incentives to companies that offer comprehensive wellness programs to their employees.”
What do you think about this? Is it a better plan than simply providing health benefits?
Image: sxc.hu.
To me, it’s just the difference between preventative and after the fact styles of health care. Some people say it’s 6x more effective, on a dollar per dollar basis, to spend on preventative care.