Saving You Money For Life

It’s not just the health insurance companies who are offering incentives to clients who lose weight. Now employers who offer health insurance to their employees are also offering wellness programs in an effort to help their employees get healthier and subsequently lower the cost of health care insurance. A residual benefit is that healthier employees work harder, accomplishing more and calling in sick less often. Everyone benefits from wellness programs and the new programs are sweeping the country.

Jim Deyling is a senior vice president at Blue Cross Blue Shield in South Carolina. He says, “Some companies offer what we refer to as preventative programs, which they’ll place additional dollars in another account that will allow workers to go for their physical or women for their mammogram tests. This measure is often included, but is up to the employers’ discretion.”

Employees who don’t take advantage of the programs and end up with sub-par health may find themselves paying more out-of-pocket expenses to cover the cost of their health care.

As Deyling points out, “Plenty of studies show that smoking and being overweight cause people to have health disorders, and having unhealthy people cause higher insurance.”

Will Shrader is a chief actuary for BlueCross BlueShield. He says that, “Smokers pay 15 percent to 20 percent more for health care than nonsmokers because of the additional doctor visits, medications and other health-related consequences of smoking. Bad eating habits that lead to obesity also lead to more money traveling through the health care system. This is not just an individual problem, it’s a burden on everyone because all of this contributes to the overall rise in health care and insurance costs.”

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