An increasing number of employers have launched company wellness initiatives. These programs are promoted as relatively low-cost ways to promote the good health of employees. They also promise to lower group health insurance costs. The logic is simple: a healthier workforce costs less to insure. Usually, employees can opt in the wellness program: if they do, they are then tested on health-related measures including cholesterol, weight, and high blood pressure. Then, the employee has a certain amount of time (often one year) to improve those health measures if they are currently unacceptable. If he or she lowers their cholesterol level or decreases their weight to a healthy body mass index, his or her health insurance premium goes down. Conversely, if he or she continues to have a high BMI, for example, health insurance rates will increase.
Supporters of wellness incentives claim that it gives employees more reponsibility over their health care and encourages them to engage in preventative care, as opposed to relying on their medical insurance to treat them after the fact. However, such incentives do not appear to have lowered health care costs. Grocery store chain Safeway, whose CEO has heavily promoted such reforms in Congress, did not keep health insurance costs flat after enacting the policy. Rather, the percentage of revenue spent on employee health insurance continued to rise; in 2009, Safeway’s costs actually increased more than the national average!
Republican and Democratic politicians alike have pointed to Safeway as a model for healthcare reform. In fact, the Senate’s legislation would double the penalties and rewards that could be tied to the results of wellness tests (as opposed to the act of simply participating in wellness programs). The wellness test portion of the program was under a year old when its so-called reduction in health care spending was praised. It seems that praise may have been premature.
(Image: Pink Sherbet Photography under CC 2.0)
Tags: business health insurance, group health insurance, health insurance, healthcare reform, medical insurance, safeway, wellness incentive
