Health Insurance & Medical 'Tests'

[LinathSuru]

More U.S. employers tie health insurance to medical tests - Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News.

Once a year, employees of the Swiss Village Retirement Community in Berne, Ind., have a checkup that will help determine how much they pay for health coverage. Those who don't smoke, aren't obese and whose blood pressure and cholesterol fall below specific levels get to shave as much as $2,000 off their annual health insurance deductibles.

-snip-

Proponents say such plans offer people a financial incentive to make healthier choices and manage chronic conditions such as obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes, which are driving up health care costs in the USA. Even so, studies of the effect of such policies on lifestyle changes are inconclusive. And advocates for people with chronic health conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes, fear that tying premium costs directly to test results could lead to discrimination.

So the 'medical test' for obesity is presumably stepping on a scale so the doctor can calculate your BMI, right? I wonder if they penalize the anorexic.

And 5% of those tie the financial rewards or penalties to meeting specific medical-based standards.

And I misread 'specific medical-based standards' as 'specific media-based standards'. That honestly feels more genuine to me in regards to the fact that they are disqualifying people based on obesity. Not every fat person is unhealthy, just like not every thin person is healthy. I wonder if the people at the top of companies employing plans like that even care enough to know that.

Employers will still have to craft plans to comply with federal and, in some cases, state requirements, Volpp says. The programs must be voluntary — meaning an employer can't require a worker to participate as a condition of coverage — and the employer must offer a "reasonable alternative" to qualify for the reward, or to avoid the penalty for those who can't achieve the goals.

That at least I'm thankful for, though I wonder what the "reasonable alternative" is, and if they are required to make those who don't meet the goals aware of said alternative or if the person in question would have to inquire.

The article also talks about people who have sued companies over instituting health incentive plans like that. I think that would be the road I took if my company started a program like that. At least if weight was a central part of it. I would be more understanding of something like this if they actually measured strictly your health rather than your health and poundage. Ugh.

 

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