From Sadly No! via MSNBC
In late June, the Indianapolis-based hospital system announced that starting in 2009, it will fine employees $10 per paycheck if their body mass index [BMI, a ratio of height to weight that measures body fat] is over 30. If their cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose levels are too high, they'll be charged $5 for each standard they don't meet. Ditto if they smoke: Starting next year, they'll be charged another $5 in each check.
And before you think this is an isolated case:
But some employment lawyers and wellness program administrators believe Clarian's approach may not be so unusual in coming years. They see employers, already overwhelmed by rising health-care costs, getting more aggressive in mandating changes in employee behavior. Garry Mathiason, a senior partner at employment law firm Littler Mendelson, says more than 300 companies have requested its assistance on mandatory wellness initiatives since it released a study on the topic in April. "In reality, you only get a certain amount of participation with incentive and encouragement," he says. "The demand for [curtailing health-care costs] is so great that [employers] are willing to take the next step. It's tough love." As BusinessWeek chronicled in February, some outlier companies have even banned tobacco use for its employees altogether [see BusinessWeek.com, 2/26/07, "Get Healthy -- or Else"].
Wow. This is a little too close to Gattaca for me. If this company is legally allowed to do this, then what's to stop more companies from doing this, and worse? Will this lead to genetic discrimination? Below are the proposed "caps" on glucose and blood pressure:
At Clarian, employees who have blood pressure that's above 140 over 90, blood glucose levels over 120, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol over 130, or a BMI over 29.9 could be subject to the paycheck deductions.
So, how would this affect people with diabetes and chronic high blood pressure? With all spotlights being shined on Universal Healthcare over the past few months, this is a development that simply screams for it. Bradley at Sadly No sums it up nicely:
The most persuasive argument against letting the state run our country’s health care is that nobody enjoys having gubmint bureaucrats regulating our personal choices- i.e., telling us not to smoke, not to drink, to eat healthy, etc. But our employer-based is already heading in this direction to a far greater extent than the gubmint-run health care system in France ever will (the French, despite being skinnier than the average American, are still pretty unhealthy people who smoke all the time and eat a fair amount of fatty garbage).
So that does it, then. There is absolutely no damn reason to not let the government run our health care. Bring on socialized medicine, and faster please!
We need to keep up the pressure on the Dems to keep the Heathcare issue front and center. Because letting my employer dictate my health is simply unacceptable.
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