Word: health
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Companies have long promoted healthier behavior by subsidizing gym memberships and smoking-cessation classes. But several private and public employers have started tying financial incentives to their health-insurance plans. North Carolina this year became the second state to approve an increase in out-of-pocket expenses for state workers who smoke and don't try to quit or who are morbidly obese and don't try to lose weight. Alabama was the first to pass what critics call a fat fee, in 2008, and several state insurance plans have started imposing a $25 monthly surcharge on smokers...
There's even a push in Congress to let employers further link lifestyles to insurance premiums. Right now companies that run their own insurance programs can reward employees with bonuses or premium reductions of up to 20% if they meet certain health guidelines. John Ensign, Republican Senator from Nevada, and Tom Carper, Democratic Senator from Delaware, co-sponsored an amendment to the current health care bill that would raise the limit to as high as 50%. The Senate Finance Committee gave it a thumbs-up in September...
...there's a big difference between handing out gift cards and jacking up people's co-pays. The Tar Heel State in particular has been criticized for using a big-stick approach. Starting in July, state workers who smoke will be moved from the plan that covers 80% of health care costs to one that pays 70%, an out-of-pocket difference of approximately $480 a year, unless they agree to enroll in a smoking-cessation program...
...trying to get across to the population that they have to take responsibility for their well-being and engage in more healthy behavior," says Jack Walker, executive director of the North Carolina State Health Plan. The plan estimates that claims for chronic diseases related to obesity may top $108 million a year and claims for tobacco-related illnesses more than $137 million a year...
...might think organizations that focus on improving health and eradicating disease would be thrilled that employers are coming up with more incentives to lose weight and stop smoking. But in October the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society and 61 other organizations sent a letter to Congress calling the Ensign-Carper amendment discriminatory and warning that it could make health insurance too expensive for the people who need it most. Says George Huntley of the American Diabetes Association: "This is not a wellness program. It's a penalty for failing to achieve a specific health status...