Why Should Healthy Employees Be Rewarded?

If you want to be fair just make all bonus up to, say 10,000 dollars tax free for any self emprovement. Let the employee spend it any way they wish. Maybe one guy wants back hair removal. Some woman wants larger or smaller breasts - let the worker choose. (I'm not American so I guess I should not really comment - sorry.)

I'm all for it! Those who call it a form of lifestyle discrimination are those who are too lazy to put in the work to change their lives for the better. This is not just a handout to skinny people. This is a way of rewarding effort. Too many people assume that those who are healthy have it easy, but being healthy is hard work that takes a lot of discipline. It's hard to find time to exercise, it's hard to physically do the exercise, it's hard to eat right, it's hard to force yourself to go to bed early so you get enough sleep. But these things will improve the quality of your life so drastically that we should all do everything we can to encourage each other to do them.

Also, employers pay for your healthcare and the healthier you are the easier it is to provide you with quality coverage. It's a financially sound move on their part.

I can definitely see the positive in this but it could become a slippery slope. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a healthy lifestyle after all I am a personal trainer/nutrition consultant, but I wonder if it's encroaching on privacy a little too much and where the line should be drawn. That's a tough one.

I don't think it is lifestyle discrimination at all. It is in the employer's best interests for you to be healthier. You being healthier means fewer sick days where you are unable to work! IMO anything that could be considered something to make you more healthy than you already are should be included in the program. Just like anything else (401k), you don't have to participate if you don't want. Makes perfect sense to me...

Congress should mind it's own business. We have a national government trying to micro-manage how much time you spend at the gym. And they're doing it using the Tax Code. Could there be anything more obviously wrong?

Congress should not pass any new rules or come up with any new plans. Focus on repealing the old ones so we can have a free society again.

No diet or exercise issue could ever be as harmful as Congress being this intimately involved in everyone's life.

I fear this type of incentive. What if employers choose the wrong thing to incentivize? For example, there is a good bit of controversy right now regarding total cholesterol ... the current literature suggests that lowering your total cholesterol with a statin shows no benefit to overall health. But it is pretty well entrenched in the vernacular that lowering your total cholesterol is a good thing. So ... if employers incentivize a lower total cholesterol, we now have a policy that created a negative impact on public health.

I have mixed feeling even though I am a workout nut! I think it is great for work places to provide availability to work out & I do think it would be an incentive for those that can't afford it OR if it is right at the work place, easy access. Saying this, are they even going to give the people time to work out & eat right. Sometimes people are working VERY long hours.

As a person not in Corporate anymore, can somebody pay my gym fees????

I agree with Shauna too... although important for employs to be healthy, I am not sure if we should tell them they have to do this if they can perform their job otherwise without excess sick days due to health related weight issues.

I actually work for a healthcare company that fully supports incentivizing employees for taking control of their health - and it is fantastic! It is also actually a lot more complex then just paying someone for losing 10 pounds or lowering their cholesterol.

For example, my company paid for me to join a weight management program. I could have chosen weight watchers - but I opted for the medically managed program called HMR. Once I completed a set amount of time (about 3 months), my company deposited $100 into my bank account. So not only did I get to utilize the program for free, but I was paid to do it! (full disclosure - i had to pay for the food on the program myself)

The same goes for someone who smokes or for someone who needs help managing a chronic condition. We also get incentives for keeping up on our preventive care (annual physicals and routine screenings like mammograms, etc.). So even if you're already healthy, you are incentivized to take steps to stay that way. It's great!

Plus, no one HAS to do any of these programs. And if you don't - you're not penalized. But if you choose to put in the time & effort, you're rewarded.

Sorry for going on so long - but I am definitely a supporter of this!!

I guess the question should be, why not?
In the greater picture, being healthy or healthier actually will save you, your employer and the economy money. So why not reward you for helping?

Hmm.

I don't think such incentives would motivate me -- I'm already very active and healthy. In the long run, though, it's my suspicion that people are going to have to be self-motivated to make lasting and really healthy changes in their lifestyles. Incentives might give them the UMPH they need to get started in the right direction, though, so I think it's a good idea -- putting the money in prevention and lifestyle change is better and should be cheaper than pouring it into treatment later.

I'm all for employers encouraging us to be healthier. It would be great to see more accessible facilities in our work places so that this could happen on lunch breaks or straight after work, for example.

But, to be honest I think I'd far rather see government putting together a scheme so that healthy food in supermarkets is much cheaper, this way everyone can benefit.

In terms of exercise, there are loads of things you can do that don't cost the earth. This is also about making the time to be healthier - I really don't know if this government scheme will encourage people to do that long-term.

The other question is why should we be paid to look after our own health? Shouldn't we care enough about ourselves to do that without payment??

I own a mid-size firm in Miami, Florida and I have recently registered for the Corporate nutrition program from Elitehealth.com for the employees. The diet reviews and assessments have been an eye opener for most of us and the best part of the service is that we can consult the dietitian anytime via email. These sessions have bursted a lot of myths regarding the diet. We look forward to learning a few more things as we go along.

I think it's a good idea for employers to help their employees be healthier as well. I don't think it's discriminatory at all...doesn't everyone at least WANT to be a bit healthier? Why not make it easier for people to make better choices? The hospital that I work for has a pretty decent setup: we have an onsite gym that has a VERY cheap membership fee and they highly encourage everyone to join and go down there and work out. Our cafeteria has a great salad bar and offers healthy meal options every day and we have a beautiful walking trail near the campus that has nice plants and trees around it. Granted, people will always choose not to take advantage of those perks, but I give our hospital credit for at least trying. Every year, we also get free employee health assessments where we get free cholesterol/blood glucose screenings and they take our weight/body fat/blood pressure. I wish they'd give us a break on our health insurance premiums for having really good health numbers, but they haven't gotten that far yet, lol.

So if I'm fat, smoke and have high blood pressure, I get $$ to take care of it? What if you're already healthy and don't need to lose weight, stop smoking etc etc. Then you don't get anything? I've already dropped 30 lbs, normalized my blood sugar, normalized my blood pressure and increased muscle mass. I know that good health is it's own benefit, but should I not be rewarded for being and staying healthy? And who decides what a healthy habit is? Most of us know now that the whole high grain, low fat diet is a sham. What then?

While using incentives to help get people into healthy routines could be a good thing, I can see some definite downsides.

There is a certain mainstream thought on what is healthy and how to lose weight that the evidence just doesn't show as working all that well. I'm a bit concerned that if we get too many nutrition incentives out there, that people who choose to follow a nutritional pattern outside of what is commonly accepted as the "right" one will end up being penalized for it. Because let's face it, any system that begins rewarding people for doing something essential right will end up having some penalties for those who don't participate or don't participate correctly, whether social or implicit in the rules of the institution.

This is not saying that exercise and eating real, recognizable food is not good, but that the definition of what is "healthy" can change drastically, and that employers, and especially government, should probably butt out of the details.

Then again, my immune system and gut have this *thing* against most grains, legumes, dairy, and sweeteners, so I'm a...bit...biased. And afraid that mean old gubbmint is going to steal my pastured chicken livers and eggs from me. Or the lamb. Mmm.

They'll get my delicious pasture raised meat and eggs when they pry them from my salivating mouth...if they can catch up with the trail of dust left by my bike first. :)