It’ll Cost You To Be A Couch Potato

It started when the airlines began looking at plans to charge additional ticket fees to anyone who could not “fit” into a standard airplane seat. Essentially an individual would have to purchase 2 tickets to cover the cost of taking up the two seats necessary to support their size. As someone who has traveled quite a bit over the years, I can tell you that fitting into a standard airplane seat is difficult for skinny people, much less our heavier counterparts.

I’ve often wondered how the airlines would implement such a plan. Do they ask how much you weigh when you purchase your ticket? Do they make you stand on a scale at the check-in counter?

“No sir, first we weigh you, THEN we send you through the x-ray.”

Am I at the airport, or my doctor’s office?

Pudgy People Will Pay More

This trend of financially penalizing unhealthy people is now carrying over into the workplace. Employers, including state and local governments, are evaluating plans to increase health benefits costs for employees they deem “unfit”.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported last week that the city of Kennesaw, Georgia is going to vote on a plan that would effectively double the insurance premiums for city employees who are “fat”, smoke, or are deemed to fall into the “high-risk” health category.  Now this begs the question of who sets the definitions for what is “fit” and “high-risk”.  The city intends to partner with a wellness consulting firm that will dictate those standards.  They will also offer wellness programs designed to help people quit smoking and to lose weight so that they can obtain that favored “fit” status.

Now here’s where it gets interesting.  And keep in mind, I’m all for offering employees access to programs to improve their health, regardless of the financial incentive to do so.  I’ve always tried to take advantage of employee discounts for health club memberships and such in the past.

However, the city of Kennesaw is pushing this plan also as a way to cut the city’s health care costs.  But study after study has shown that introducing wellness programs to an employee base does, in fact, not save an employer money or cut benefits costs for the employee.  Now in this program of penalizing the employee for not maintaining a “fit” standard, the employee will save money if he adheres to the standards set by the wellness firm, but the people making the real money in this are the wellness companies.

The wellness industry is built around profits made from personal consultations, dietary supplement sales, and weight-loss programs.  Allowing these firms to set the standards to which employees will have to adhere is basically giving them the ability to define a captive, paying customer  base.

Should the firm that sets the standards be the one to profit from those that don’t meet them?

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