Have you heard about this? The state of Alabama has decided that in 2010 all of its employees will have to pay an additional $600 per year towards their healthcare premiums. Well, actually, it's only their fat employees that will have to cough up the money. That's right - they'll apparently be having a good ol' fashion Weight Watchers style weigh in right there at the state office building to make sure your BMI is acceptable. Nothing like a little financial incentive coupled with public embarrassment to get folks to drop those pounds.If you don't know me I'll say in the interest of full disclosure that I'm not svelte. I've battled weight all my life and have found my greatest successes at Weight Watchers. Yet it's not empathy for these state workers that angers me about this new policy but rather the clear path that we're going to head down under the pretense of controlling health care costs. Once again we're on a slippery slope here. How about $750 annually if you smoke (we can draw blood to check up on you)? Maybe a grand if you have to be treated for a venereal disease since that implies you have unprotected sex (we'll just throw up some curtains around that scale).
The intent of motivating people to adopt a healthy life style is laudable but misguided in this instance. You do not need (want) a government entity trying to enforce this. It seems to me that what we really need is to put the patient back in charge of their healthcare. Insurance has insulated patients from the need to be good consumers, and that is a bad thing. Rather than the government or business trying to formulate financial penalties for imprudent behavior it seems that somehow we have to return to patients being consumers and reaping the benefits (or detriments) of their decisions.
No comments:
Post a Comment