No doubt, they will try, try again (and then sue for the obesity, too).
Posted on 05/10/2008 8:59:30 AM PDT by neverdem
Hmm we best start this out with the political class. Specifically the leadership of the Democrats. Looking at everyone from Al Gore to Hillary Cliton, they need a serious dose of “Welliness” far worse then Corporate America does.
That may not be quite so true...
I can’t stand to be downwind from the company smoke breakers. I’ll say that much.
In any given year in any average pool of employees, something like 80% of health care costs are the result of 10% of the employees. Now, some of these are accidents, like getting hit by a car, but at least 50% of all these costs are the result of lifestyle choices... lung cancer, diabetes, COPD, heart attacks and strokes related to health, etc.
In any given pool of employees, there is not much that can be done about the 10%.. the horse has left the barn. But, there is another 30% or so of the employees who will one day BECOME one of the 10%. The smokers, the overweight, etc.
Health care costs could come down dramatically if even a small portion of that 30% could be converted into the part of the roughly 60% who are generally healthy people with healthy habits.
Now, why is this relevant? This is relevant because the government has a massive involvement in health care. For an average employee pool, the company and the insurance company have an incentive to get the employees healthier. The government is insuring or paying the costs for people who are even unhealthier than the average employee pool, so small amounts of wellness would save the gov't i.e. the taxpayers a LOT of money.
Since taxpayer foot the bill, a lot of people believe the government has an interest in promoting wellness.
This is the problem with creeping socialism.. once the gov't gets involved in one area, it justifies a further expansion of its involvment.
Wellness refers generally to the state of being healthy.
+
Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.
=DoubleSpeak of the highest order.
If the employer doesn’t want smokers then they should not have smokers. That is conservatism. If the reason is because they want their employees to be well or if they want to see them squirm from nicotine fits from withdrawal, it doesn’t matter.
The author wants to make employers allow smoking because of his perception the employer is a socialist. Such reasoning is compounding the error of social engineering and does not resemble conservatism or even libertarianism.
Good post... take the king’s money, you take it on the king’s terms pretty much.
Sound familiar? Smoking. Global Warming. The War on Terror. Pick an issue on the Left and see raging groupthink in action.
Groupthink can happen in almost any group but it certainly seems sometimes that Liberals are standing in line, eager to be a part of it.
Soubnds like f**kin communists to me.
yeah, that’s an easier way to describe it.
We are now not anymore in the place where if you acted stupid or didn’t take care of yourself, you suffered the consequences. Now, you would be taken care at the emergency room and then put on welfare or SocSec disability for the rest of your life ( and with modern medical technology that could go on for years!.
Sooo... if the costs are coming out of my tax dollars the government has my eprmission to require helmets for motorcycle riders. If a corporation does not want to pay outrageous med insurance premiums for smokers, then mandate their employees do not smoke!
Until the “freedom lovers” enact laws that say either you have your own multi million dollar medical insurance policy or make laws refusing to treat certain emergencies at the ER and refuse to grant medicaid or SSDI to those who are not taking care of themselves.
Good post, describes every single “Liberal” I know.
This is very sad. Smokers are marked in modern day America. White males are marked, the ones who aren't of the ruling class. Gun owners have fought past the mark, but the libs won't stop.
The author forgot the combination of public relations and propaganda the left uses to reinforce its pet causes. If they believe something, it will be launched into the mainstream through movies and shows, news, documentaries, and college classes. Their opinions become our truth.
Great post - thanks.
“Health care costs could come down dramatically if even a small portion of that 30% could be converted into the part of the roughly 60% who are generally healthy people with healthy habits.”
For that particular business, maybe. But overall, I doubt it. Smokers tend to die earlier and as such don’t rack up the healthcare costs of someone who lives till 85 years old, sees the doctor two or more times per year, takes 3-4 or more meds per day for 20 plus years, has a couple of surgeries and numerous tests and then still engages in a costly treatment to deal with whatever it is that will eventually kill them. Not to mention the 20 plus years of collected social security.
What happens after people leave the workforce is not a strength of mine, but the numbers I gave, although rough, are accurate for the work force. In any given year, roughly 80% of costs are bourne by 10% of the workforce, and of that, 50% are voluntarily incurred i.e. they are the result of lifestyle choice, with smoking a big one.
I’m partway into Jonah Goldberg’s “Liberal Fascism” and I recommend it highly. Most educational. I recommend it to liberals as much as conservatives but so far, they never read past the from cover and scream their rage at being compared to Nazis.
Lesson 1 overall from the book is “all birds of a feather.” They all share similar roots in nineteenth and early twentieth-century “progressive” philosophers and assorted politicians (T.R. and Woodrow Wilson among them) who asserted the primacy of the state over the people (with themselves as philosopher-kings, of course), and with the goal of imposing healthy living (among many other things) on us.
The one thing all leftys of various stripes over the past 150 years have shared in common is the fervent belief in the perfectability of Man and the total malleability of human nature. None of the gruesome failures so far has ever dimmed their ardor for their grand experiment.
[Clinton Sows] Seeds of Destruction MUST READ!
Obama Needs a History Lesson (Excellent read!) IMHO, another holiday from history
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