I read an article on Wonkblog a little over a week ago and have wanted to share it. The article focuses on a strategy that the Cleveland Clinic and its efforts to tackle health care costs for its employees.
Basically what the clinic did was force its employees to become healthy. They forbid smoking on the campus they're located on. If you violate this twice, you're fired. They stopped carrying sugary drinks, forcing anyone who wanted one to bring it from home. They raised premium prices, but with a catch. If you are attending a healthy-living class, a gym or something like that, then you were refunded the increase.
All of this has led to a decrease in the clinic's spending on health care for its employees, and all because employees have gotten healthier, not because access or quality of care were cut. With the biggest driver of America's debt being fueled by exploding health care costs, this offers an interesting potential solution national health care prices.
I don't ever see anything as extreme being enacted for programs like Medicaid, the VA or Medicare (remember Death Panels? and that was only about the creation of an advisory board focused on procedures that yield poor results), but I wouldn't be surprised if more private firms move to incentivize their employees to be healthier.
This may, however, create the situation wherein employers discriminate against unhealthy candidates (obese, chronically ill, etc.). Anyways, interesting case study that I thought was worth sharing!
That sort of looks like Obama but my gut tells me it is not him. Sort of like the photos of an alleged "terrorist" with a similar name.
ReplyDeleteHow involved do you want your boss, corporation, or government to be in dictating your lifestyle? May they also decide your diet, what you drink, how you exercise, how you spend your free time? Would they treat that information responsibly?
ReplyDeleteA California health insurance company was doing most of this and more when I worked for them years ago. At the same time, they were pressing for universal health insurance. Their stated reasoning behind both efforts was to increase their profit margins by selling insurance to more people who don't use it.