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Subscribe to RSSThe number of companies offering wellness perks, including everything from fitness club membership reimbursement to weight loss programs, has barely budged since the Great Recession started. But employers are increasing the pressure on employees to shape up anyway.
If you quit smoking or lose weight, more companies are willing to offer you discounts on those hefty insurance premiums today, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management released Monday.
In 2009, only 4 percent of employers offered such breaks for weight loss, compared to 9 percent today. And 20 percent of companies offer the discount for smoking cessation, compared to 8 percent in 2009.
Society for Human Resource Management
But the number of companies providing smoking cessation classes has stayed at about 40 percent for the past four years. Also, fitness club subsidies has actually declined to 31 percent this year, down from 35 percent in 2009, but up from 30 percent last year. And weight loss programs have stayed around the 30 percent mark since 2009; rising slightly this year to 32 percent.
On the financial wellness side, more employers want workers to manage their own retirement. The study found that 92 percent of companies now offer defined contribution retirement plans such as 401(k), compared 21 percent of those offering traditional pensions. In 2008, the numbers were 83 percent and 33 percent respectively.
“By shifting primary responsibility in controlling certain healthcare and financial benefits, employers are recognizing a shift in workplace culture,” said Mark Schmit, vice president of research for SHRM. “The new plans allow employees have more control over how they save for retirement and manage their health, while reducing costs for employers. These plans are also more flexible, and thus more attractive, to employees who will likely not spend an entire career with one organization.”
In another area of employee health management, companies are further pushing medical screenings for employees. This year, 21 percent of companies offer insurance discounts for those workers who agree to take such health risk assessments, up from 10 percent just three years ago.
Such medical incentives, however, can sometimes run afoul of labor and medical privacy laws.
All medical data that comes out of health assessments is supposed to be kept strictly confidential. And under HIPAA, the total awards for participating in wellness programs cannot exceed 20 percent of an employee’s total coverage cost of the plan. But a provision in health care reform will up that number to 30 percent in 2014. The Americas With Disabilities Act also protects workers who may not be able to slim down, or can’t participate in company-sponsored exercise programs because of a disability.
So what’s your take on employers working on slimming you down and having you take more financial responsibility for your future in the anticipation that you’ll be leaving soon anyway?
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Workers to Employers: Try treating us with the respect that people deserve rather than resources that you can buy and throw away on a whim. We're the ones making you rich.
beat me too it lol.
Don't forget to throw in fair pay. CEO's do not deserve 350 times the pay of their employees. Who is going to work hard when they can barely afford to pay their bills and eat? I don't feel very much obligated to work hard for the people stabbing a knife in the back of the american people.
How much more can the anti-patriotic and anti-Christian Party of No's 1% Overlords extract from the Middle and Working Classes?
It is the master plan of returning to days of yore....masters and serfs. Oh, you will work all right. Romney and his ilk to America: "We will make it more difficult to get an education unless your family is already rich, keeping the money in the hands of the few, and even more difficult to acheive family planning, guaranteeing a desperate underclass who will work for whatever we say we will pay them."
Obama 2012
Nothing new there. Employers have been offering smoking cessation discounts for years.
David9000,
I agree with all your posts on this subject 100%. Employers, including corps, by definition are sociopaths. They do not and must not care about the individual worker, or their suffering, at the expense of profits.
If you wish to support that model, vote for Romney.
Hey Kate,
In case you didn't read the article, it was about employers offering incentives to employees who smoke and don't get enough exercise to begin living healthier. Nowhere did it mention "politics" "Romney" or "his ilk". Maybe you are offended by the article because it squarely targets YOU and your ilk.
wmoz.....you would not see the bigger picture if I painted it on a canvas and slammed it over your head. A vote for Romney IS a vote for big business to run roughshod over the populace, including what business would be emboldened to do.
Employees to Employers: Pay up, and quit bitching.
kate..this is happening now while Obama is the president..so don't you think you should be hitting obama just as hard as you're hitting Romney for something you're projecting that he's doing? What makes you think that Obama won't stop or retard this practice from happening??
Employees to employers,
You pay me for XX number of hours per week or month. Do not issue me a company car, company smart phone and company laptop so I can work 2 x xx hours, to the detriment of my health and family. I might be healthier if you didn't have me tied to a desk or assembly line work-station 12 hrs/day.
He's trying. He is not the king. He is the president. I trust him to act in my better interest waaaay more than I trust Romney. Romney cannot empathize with your average American. He was raised in business. Business is not government. The government does not buy and sell goods and services with an objective of turning a profit. The government governs.
You're right kate. Government doesn't buy and sell goods or services to turn a profit. Instead they just steal the money they want from the citizens so they can turn around and spend it on useless projects to help buy votes for the next election cycle.
David, don't like it? Start your own business then. Because we need businesses just as much as they need us. It's a two way street. Every company has employees that loaf, or steal office supplies, or use company time for personal business. Respect is earned, not given...
Are you saying employers should be allowed to treat their employee's with disrespect? I don't think he was asking very much at all. Especially since employee's are an asset in the end, because a company does not work without them.
Every company has a CEO that waste's company time and steals, but they cost the company alot more than the employee's. But the employee's are the one's who suffer for it.
You said yourself it is a two-way street, but their side of the street seems to be getting all the traffic(money) lately, while middle-america suffers.
Respect is earned, not bought
Tim - I've had my own businesses and worked for large and small companies. I gave them hard honest work, never stole, and earned and saved them millions of dollars. But any of those companies would toss me out the door if they thought they could find a cheaper alternative or decide to randomly reorg to fit with some executives "vision". I've watched it happen to many others like me (fortunately, I've moved faster than they could). In today's corporate world, respect is a one way street by corporate standards... employees must respect the company and be all-in. The company to employees? Not so much.
The guy who foots the bills makes the rules.....always, everywhere, all the time and forever. But you don't have to play by his rules if you don't want to. Just don't bet that you can get him to foot the bill and play by your rules.
Tim-874396
I worked for a company that told me if I smoked I could take a break every hour but if I didn't I needed to stay at my post and work. How is that fair treatment? I'm sure the pay made up for the 5 minutes lost in production which in most cases didn't change because one person would go outside at a time so production stayed the same.
Look at the models where employees have a vested interest in the companies' success and get back to us. I was going to mention how Home Depot turned around after giving employees a vested interest, but research shows that three outfits bought them out, one of them......drum roll.....Bain Capital!
We are doomed if Romney is elected. Life and democracy as we know it is dying.
So if that is the only way we can have our personal lives back, we're going to need a massive influx of funds to borrow from, so we can all afford to start our own businesses. And after that there's the problem of if we all run our own businesses, who is going to do the work?
Do you see where perhaps your solution to this assault on our privacy is, shall we say, utterly @!$%#ing ludicrous? Let's go back to the beginning where the employer owns our bodies (or, believes that they do).
'Cause I gotta tell you, Tim-Of the many numbers, I think they outlawed Slavery over a century ago. Did you not get the memo?
Who is going to do with work, you ask? Why the Mexican immigrants, of course! That is exactly what we have today. (Some) People who start businesses are looking for cheap, undemanding labor who have no rights.
It won't be long now before companies require a DNA test to determine if you have the possibility of getting sick. They will then refuse to hire you because of that possibility.
This intrusion into one's personal life needs to be stoped now!
Again, if you expect them to pay your insurance premium then they get to decide whether you smoke, what you use for contraception (and why) and so on. What we really need is a single payer option where employees give you a "health" voucher or pay a tax. Then you use the voucher to buy the public option or whatever private policy your little heart desires. I don't see why employers need to be the ones that determine which health insurance company will collect your premiums and under what circumstances....but that is just me and I am in the minority.
Agree 100%! Since they don't pay us for our personal time.....they have NO business dictating what we do during our personal time! One-by-one....our personal freedoms are going.
Siingle payer, universal health coverage. It's all the rage in civilized countries.
I respectfully disagree with Rocklin. If you want the healthcare, you need to make an effort not to cost so much for those factors which ARE under your control. You cannot eat your cake and have it too.
Paul-991174, Glad to see you have the sense to see where this is going. Historically, getting a job = Getting a job. In the last couple of decades, it has turned in to a credit check, an intelligence test, a personality evaluation, a popularity contest, and everything else.
Unless these are in the way of job performance, weight and smoking are no one else's business.
If we're going to go there, then how come these dangerous habits are so easy to acquire? After all, we're already supposed to pee in a cup to get a job. So how come the more dangerous of those habits aren't illegal?
YOU can't have it both ways.
Kate, thank you for disagreeing respectfully. Doesn't happen often! Yes, smoking is one of the most stupid a unhealthy things you can do to yourself. However, if it's still legal on a federal level, I'm sorry, it's not ok for a company to dictate what I do on my personal time.
I am just saying that I don't mind that those who use the most resources due to activities they CHOOSE, not pre-existing conditions, but activities they CHOOSE to engage in...like eating a triple-decker bacon burger with cheese and a huge side of fries with a giant Coke, I don't mind if they pay a bit extra in their insurance premiums. Or, put another way, call it an incentive to eat healthy and REDUCE premiums for people who maintain good blood chemistry numbers. We really need to separate fact from fiction, also. Pot is not as harmful as cigarettes or alcohol. So those myths need to be dispelled. Pot on a person's own time....I am all for it, especially if they ingest and not smoke. Not on the job if you drive machinery or work in the medical field...I am sure the list is longer. But artists? Painters? Home decorators? IT coders? Go for it! It sometimes makes a person more efficient and creative. It is great for pain control and would replace some narcotic usage. It would have to be case by case while protecting public safety. Complex, but hey! This is America! We cannot make pot illegal because booze companies put a scary awful movie out decades ago. Time for some common sense on that one. Not to mention all thte stupid crimes due to "the prohibition." Yep...time to take that one on.
Kate, I agree with your pot viewpoint. But here's a scenario that happens a lot. How about those employee's who opt out of their company's health care options & are under their spouse's health care plan? If a company still refused to hire someone because they smoked or were a little on the heavy side, isn't that just discrimination? & I'm not talking about the people who abuse their break times & take 15 smoke breaks per day.......the same can be said for the people updating their Facebook statuses on work time......which is just as unproductive & happens just as often.
The 1% are returning to the Henry Ford philosophy of management. Henry controlled the lives of his employees. Big difference was that Henry paid top dollar, and was loyal as an irish setter. (but was ornery as a grizzlie bear)
Rocklin Resident---I don't know of one person that can go all day from the time they pull into the parking lot till the time they leave the lot not to have a cigarette during the day. Where I live you can't smoke on the premises not even in your car on company property. What they could do is say you smoke you cost the company money for premiums so we are dropping you and all the other smokers to keep premiums down. You can then go out and try to buy your own for 700 a month or feed your family the stupid choice is yours or you could have a 10,000 dollar deductible to save money
Well...... I do not like this. It is too Big Brother. If we want to be fattys and or smoke? It's our right. It is unfortunate but it is our right. Period.
Brooke, if you want to be a chain-smoking lard-ass cow, fine. Don't expect your employer and your more health conscious colleagues to foot the bill for your lack of personal discipline.
Brooke - you are correct - it is your right to do whatever you want to make yourself fat, sick and unhealthy - it should be my right not to have to pay for your stupid choices. You want to be fat, dumb and happy - great, but you cost your employer at least 3 times what healthy employees cost and your co-workers end up footing the bill through higher premiums.
I also disagree. THAT is the type of socialism we already have. Just look at any TeaParty rally! You think our premiums aren't any higher just because of all those diabetes/high blood pressure/cholestrol medicines we are paying for? Just so those folks can eat whatever they want and not exercise at all and smoke? Yep. That's freedom all right. (Not)
The TeaParty (and those like them - who want the freedom to eat, smoke and drink anything they want to and not exercise) - is redistributing my wealth into the drug companies' hands! I protest!
Brooke, I agree! Tranquil & K......boy are you drinking the Koolaid! Those rising health care premiums have EVERYTHING to do with smokers & fatty's? Seems to me there's a LOT less people smoking today than ever before....& yet they're still the cause of the rising costs? Funny, when I look at my State's BOE site to see exactly how the tax revenue is to be allocated....guess what, a % of that tax...that SMOKERS pay goes towards health care costs not covered by insurance or government programs. Could it be that we live in a day & age where we run to the doctor for every little ache, pain, bump & bruise? Since we're a bunch of hypochondriacs....we overuse the medical system for unnecessary reasons. That is one of the major reasons for rising health care costs. So,....with your reasoning....please don't pay for my gross & disgusting smoking & cheeseburger habit (no, I'm not a fat lard a$$......that's just my genetics)....& I don't want to pay for your snotty nosed kid & migraine headaches!
we have given up our liberty in the name of security and now we must give up our liberty in the name of the almighty dollar. you must live the life the government mandates to save money for the "good of society". and when they mandate the one child policy then we must demonize everyone that dares to have more than one child for the "good of society" just as we now do evil smokers and the demonic over weight. we must eat, walk, talk, think as our intellectual superior elite government mandates for the "good of society". individual liberty cost money and is evil and destructive to the "good of society"
No, the cause of rising costs is rising greed. One of the big sticking points is the MLR, the part of the law that requires insurers to pay 80% of their premiums towards care, not executive bonuses and corporate jets. Amazingly enough, America is on track for a $1.3 Billion dollar rebate from the health insurance corps, based on how they've managed our premiums this year.
Astonishingly, I think the challenge to the ACA was timed to hit the court before that payout was to happen (this is the first year it was supposed to happen). There is a TON of money at stake for a business model that claims we're all just too sick to take care of. Turns out, that's bull@!$%#.
And I sure don't wanna hear someone whining about how hard it is to do business on a 20% profit margin.
In reality, $ which should be going for patient care are being drained for research.
RocklinRes...you gotta a point with that kids thing. Families that have 8 or 11 kids pay the same flat family rate as a family with 2 kids. Not fair. I cannot agree with your other stuff though. Sorry.
And SickandTired...what the heck are you talking about? I think you managed to hit every brainwashed talking point of your ilk in a very brief paragraph, to your credit, but it is all nonsense.
BROOKIE-----You are right take your fat smoking butt off the insurance. Now here lies the problem BROOKIE now has no insurance and she is not forced to get any under the Republican plan now when she gets sick or has cancer she goes to the emergency room even if she cut the tip of her finger eating a leg of lamb. She will get the best of care America has to offer for free!! Then the bill goes to all of us to pay for. That is the main reason Obama care works and this doesn't
Charger is absurd. Another little boy playing with his gun.
Looks like, being near 50, I'll never make a decent dollar in this country again.
I'm rather of the same postiion.
Part of that is because of the bad job market. But another aspect is that mature workers tend to reject these personal control tactics employers are trying to pull off these days. Like Kate-2736572 alludes to, it is a new form of serfdom they are trying to impose.
serfdom? you must be one of the fat, stupid, lazy unwashed peasant masses who do not see that the government and your employers are just trying to take care of you and save money. only an evil greedy demonic republican christain would think that your government and your employer are not the best ones to decide what is right for you. people are to stupid to take care of themselves they must have big mama government to take care of them from cradle to grave. people are nothing but pathetic, unruly, ignorant, frightened children (except for the ruling elite who must tell you every breath to take of course , they are the only real people on earth)
SickandTired....so why are you sick AND tired? What is your family history? Did you go to college? Do you have a job? What do you do? You are just seething venom...where does that come from?
(Do you listen to Rush?) (Do you have an original thought?)
Having just dealt with a family member's death from renal failure, I'd suggest all of the "health conscience" look a little more deeply into this before jumping on board with this plan.
Take a look at the long term effects of cholesterol lowering medications; look at the long-term effects of the osteoporosis prevention medications; look at the long term effects of artificial sweeteners recommended as part of weight loss and diabetes treatment. You may be shocked to learn of the negative health impacts of following all the "healthy living' regimes recommended. Be careful what you wish for - if you decide to "allow" some entity to dictate what constitutes a "healthy lifestyle".
Perhaps an update on current wisdom is in order. That is why healthy living is recommended to begin with. Eating veggies with calcium helps prevent osteoporosis. Artificial sweeteners are so not recommended by today's health advisors. Diabetes treatment can often, not always, just OFTEN be accomplished by changing diet and moving more. Drugs can often, not always, but OFTEN be avoided by lifestyle changes, which cost....nothing. Not a thing. You spend money on food. Choose different food. You drive 2 blocks to the store. Walk instead. These very small measures can address some of the things in your post. The information is out there and readily available. PBS stations regulary run shows about nutrition, Dr. Oz's show, World's Healthiest Foods website (nonprofit), your doctor. I mean...there is almost no excuse not to know about today's recommendation in nutrition if you take 10 minutes a day to read, 15 minutes a day to walk, shop differently. A very small amount of effort could save people from tragedy and huge medical bills.
Insurance companies have always offered cheaper rates for non-smokers,
and have always given better rates for healthier people.
This is nothing that your employer can offer.
Not always....but with the advent of the worship of money over what is right and good, that trend did start, and continues the march to this day. I think we will continue to be shocked at how far it will go. As the far right complains about moral issues, the left is complaining also about moral issues, but those moral issues concern money worship. The bible also says the love of money is the root of all evil. I am not a bible reading person, but they sure got that right. If the love of money is the root of all evil, according to the bible, why are supposed Christians hassling our citizenry with social issues with which they disagree?
Citizens United destroyed democracy in America.
I am and have been self employed for many years so I don't have a dog in this fight. However, I believe between the surpremes striking down Obamacare and corporations playing with health insurance we are getting much closer to a nationalized health care system. As soon as everyone has to buy their own (including members of congress, the white house and their staff) then the people we erroneously pay to represent us will take things seriously rather than use them for political points. Meantime, people can quit smoking or find other work. If business's loose enough people they will change their policy or if there are enough people out of work no one can buy anything and keep the business afloat it will take care of itself. If they do not then you should be gone anyway if you smoke. I do know that the same people who believe employers should be able to demand you quit are the same people who would be beside themselves if the government suggested it. Go figure.
Yep, just look at how they treat Michelle Obama for suggesting (gasp!) that we eat fresh fruits and vegetables and exercise. She encourages people to be healthier and feel better, and the right attacks her like she put some sort of shackles on people. You still have your choices, she is just trying to influence and plant ideas about healthy living. What a nasty first lady (according to Rush, et al.)
you have your "choice" unless you live in new york or massachusetts, the first banned large soft drinks the latter banned all sugary drinks from being sold in restaurants. i can assure you this ban is coming to your town soon
And I can assure YOU that you can still drink as much carbonated sugary beverage as you desire in both of those places. I don't care. I don't drink the stuff. It is empty calories and makes me puffy.
If your country had an epidemic of Diabetes II, and obesity, what would you do?
To top it off, we allow tobacco companies to sell slow acting poison to citizens.
How can we maintain FREEDOM while healing our nation? Seems the liberals have the upper hand in this debate.
I am responsible for my own health issues that are preventable. If my employer offered perks for me staying in shape and not smoking, I'd definately take it. No-brainer.
Employers aren't into perks for employees, just punishment to prevent unwanted behavior.
From employers' perspective, it costs them in terms of productivity and money if health insurance is offered. From the productivity perspective, some smokers take extra smoke breaks while on the clock. Those are extra breaks that their non-smoking colleagues don't get. They also have to cover the phones, help customers while their coworkers are out smoking and socializing. I've worked in places where smokers unofficially get extra breaks even though it's against store policy. It also was allowed because the department manager was a smoker. Hygiene is another concern as well. You smell like an ashtray when you come back in from smoking. It's inconsiderate to do that to your coworker and if you are in a customer facing position, that's not customer friendly having to smell smoke.
Many hospitals have a question on their applications asking if you use tobacco products. From what I understand, that could mean that anyone who checks yes wouldn't get hired if the choice was between them and an equally qualified nonsmoker. It's not fair but it sends the wrong message when your nurse, PA, or doctor is lecturing you to quit smoking and they smell like an ashtray.
I work in retail and it's irritating when smokers return items. Most of the items smell like smoke and it takes a couple of days to get the smell out. We usually have to damage out items like that because we can't get the smell out. There's one customer who's a regular about returning clothes. We usually have to damage out her returns because the smell of tobacco has soaked in the fabric. The crazy part is that she works as a nurse at the local hospital.
The tobacco lobby is POWerful in this country. Moneyed interests are destroying what is good and right.
that's right it is the evil tobacoo lobbies fault. they hold guns to peoples head and make them smoke so we must fight back and hold guns to peoples head and make them not smoke. that is the only way to get rid of people smelling like ashtrays. that disgust me. while we are at it, i am disgusted by most peoples colognes so i move we outlaw all colognes, perfumes and anything that has a scent to it because i am sure there is someone out there that is disgusted by at least one scent. and how about tank tops. lots of people are disgusted by tank tops and they expose so much skin to the evil sun. we must ban them too , for the "good of society" and because i don't like them
Gum smackers. Kill them too.
SickandTired....I suggest therapy. You have way more hate in your mind than a normal. I just hope you don't have firearms. Are we going to read about you in the paper soon?
There are places that ban perfumes...doctors offices often ban them, and the YMCA mercifully put up a sign asking people not to use them. They nauseate me. Why should I allow you to nauseate me and pollute the air I breathe with perfume or tobacco smoke? Are you really that callous? Do you know what the word "callous" means?
Insurance companies are becoming more creative too. My friend's company determines an employees health care premium by how much money they earn; regardless of health.
I find fat people are smarter than skinny ones. Maybe it's because the brain is mostly fatty cells. They say fish oil is good for fighting off memory loss. Again, maybe it's because of the fatty content. Or is that pork fat? I can't remember. I better put on some weight.
There's not enough people on this earth; so, let's extend life all the way to drooling down your chest in a nursing home.
Well, that was Alan Grayson's point. The Republicans' plan for you if you get sick is to die quickly. I don't get why he wasn't elected. Truth hurts, I guess.
Anyone that believes anything alan grayson could have said, was intelligent by design, is an idiot by definition.
the day employers actually care about an individual's life quality will be the day when hell freezes over. they only want you to be healthy so they can work you to death in the job you cannot quit so now they don't even want to foot the bill for it..... what else is new.
evil evil employers, let's get rid of all employers
Yus has a point. Corporations are requiring employees to work longer hours, weekends, no vacations.....because they laid off so many to increase the bottom line. SickandTired....why do you hate people spending time with their families so much?
Why do you want America's wealth to be concentrated into the top one percent? Do you think that is good policy to let so few people have control over so much of the country's wealth? Please be specific...no more of your outlandish sweeping statements.
And after you put out your cigarette give me your internet passwords on your way to have a pee test while we run a background check on you, etc., etc. Employers are looking for any and all excuses to screw employees. Lovely. Meanwhile, Mr. Executive, go load up on alcohol with all your croonies at the golf course and charging it on your company credit card. See, that's is ok according to most company policies and in your own crooked corporate minds.
some of the biggest drug abusers are the executives. They have the money for it.
Good , smokers and fat @sses are driving up my insurance costs , insurance should cost them 10x more because their care costs 10x more.
How far do you want to go with this? So if you're thin, but anorexic or bulemic, should we ban treatment of your dental damage? electrolyte problems?
Should we allow DNA testing so if you're carrying a genetic predisposition to certain forms of cancer or coronary disease or neurological diseases, you pay a extra premium? How about the risk seekers - skiers, rock climbers, fast drivers, sports enthusiasts? You get the picture. Were do you want to stop with thi?
Do I pay more for my genetic disease which has a cure NOT approved by the national institute of health? Diabetes II cure is a duodenal bypass, but NIH will not approve unless.....wait for it.....you are morbidly obese.
Go figure.
Well said, Yus. Employers today do NOT care about their employees whether they smoke or not. Just show up, shut up and get to work. But a lot of times that in itself does not guarantee you will have a job tomorrow. Anyone that does not think that the target on your back exists is only fooling themselves.
As the world turns with small particles of smoke flowing out with the smokers.While I watch these farmers burning off their farm land, so they can re-plant. With every chemical you can dream of, flowing in the air. With the farmer telling the smoker,you know smoking can kill you.
I used to work for a huge hospital/clinic. More overweight employees (most of them female) than you have ever seen.
They say smokers and obese people will kill you early. Why not make tobbaco and any sugar product over 5 grams illegal if it's a serious problem? Our auto's have new laws on emission control. Why not humans have new laws. Oh, I forgot, our government is complaining they are going broke because we are living longer.
I am all for the Congress and the senate discontinuing their pension plans of the past (defined benefit plans) for both houses and as with most companies placing them in 100 percent 401K plans. It would save billions on dollars and make them correct the markets istead of protecting wall street and their own pensions. If they have so much faith in a corrupt wall street then let them put their money where their out is. The privitasation of the plans for social security and pensions and health insurance should start should start at the top. John McCain has been in the senate since 1981 AND Jan Brewer should be blaming him for immigration problems. Let me see her papers. The party of Lincoln and my party is a MESS! Linclon is now rolling over in his grave.
I agree. We should just experiment with one generation, but only governors, senators, mayors, congresspersons, and other government employees would be the guinea pigs until we see just how it would work out. They could form a mini-society just to see how it works, what the risks are, and how well they are cared for into their old age. Indeed, why should the experiment go the other way with them raking in guaranteed retirement and health benefits on our collective dime while leaving the rest of the populace to the wolves of Wall Street and sellers of insurance products, those jackals. If they succeed and are satisfied it is safe to take that path, by all means, the rest of us can join in.
My company has a real wellness perk: lose weight or lose your job. No kidding! And, one day, last week, they had a special meeting to announce that our health as employees improved so much, they were no longer going to offer comprehensive health care. No kidding! I am so hoping Romney gets into office. When he does, my job will probably pay me nothing saying I should just be glad I have healthcare. And then, when they fire me, they will say they did me a favor by kicking me out of a no paying job.
Imagine a day when everyone in the U.S. is as health as a horse, no smoking, no drinking, everyone bicycles or jogs to work. Then imagine what will happen, the loss of tax revenue on the cigarette's and booze will have to be found somewhere. The states and government will have no choice but to increase taxes on food and water. Now that no one is driving, the tax on fuel will have to increase to cover the loss, that will increase the cost of all delivered goods. And don't forget the insurance company's that are loosing revenue because everyone is TO healthy! Do you really think they will stand by and let their profits blow out the window?
And if you get laid off you should get back your high deductible that these blood sucking Health Care companies are imposing. I was laid off right after we paid the 5,000 dollar deductible, was laid off and only had 10 days left of Health Insurance. That should be against the law!
MumbiMutual - herding their sheep into the slaughter.... and you know who the sheep are.
to: never stop asking questions - try answering a few!! since i am neither party, which is the party of no? i see very little difference in republican and democrat as far as "good of the people" is concerned, just different approaches.
Comment to The Vine: I noticed Harry Limpet capitalized the word "to" and misused it as well, why didn't you accuse him of yelling!