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Suzanimal
01-13-2015, 09:14 AM
Was this an issue before Obamacare?


NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. companies are increasingly penalizing workers who decline to join "wellness" programs, embracing an element of President Barack Obama's healthcare law that has raised questions about fairness in the workplace.

Beginning in 2014, the law known as Obamacare raised the financial incentives that employers are allowed to offer workers for participating in workplace wellness programs and achieving results. The incentives, which big business lobbied for, can be either rewards or penalties - up to 30 percent of health insurance premiums, deductibles, and other costs, and even more if the programs target smoking.

Among the two-thirds of large companies using such incentives to encourage participation, almost a quarter are imposing financial penalties on those who opt-out, according to a survey by the National Business Group on Health and benefits consultant Towers Watson (For graphic see http://link.reuters.com/byr73w)

For some companies, however, just signing up for a wellness program isn't enough. They're linking financial incentives to specific goals such as losing weight, reducing cholesterol, or keeping blood glucose under control. The number of businesses imposing such outcomes-based wellness plans is expected to double this year to 46 percent, the survey found.

"Wellness-or-else is the trend," said workplace consultant Jon Robison of Salveo Partners.

Incentives typically take the form of cash payments or reductions in employee deductibles. Penalties include higher premiums and lower company contributions for out-of-pocket health costs.

Financial incentives, many companies say, are critical to encouraging workers to participate in wellness programs, which executives believe will save money in the long run.

"Employers are carrying a major burden of healthcare in this country and are trying to do the right thing," said Stephanie Pronk, a vice president at benefits consultant Aon Hewitt. "They need to improve employees' health so they can lead productive lives at home and at work, but also to control their healthcare costs."

But there is almost no evidence that workplace wellness programs significantly reduce those costs. That's why the financial penalties are so important to companies, critics and researchers say. They boost corporate profits by levying fines that outweigh any savings from wellness programs.

"There seems little question that you can make wellness programs save money with high enough penalties that essentially shift more healthcare costs to workers," said health policy expert Larry Levitt of the Kaiser Family Foundation.



FOUR-FIGURE PENALTIES

At Honeywell International, for instance, employees who decline company-specified medical screenings pay $500 more a year in premiums and lose out on a company contribution of $250 to $1,500 a year (depending on salary and spousal coverage) to defray out-of-pocket costs.

Kevin Covert, deputy general counsel for human resources, acknowledged it was too soon to tell if Honeywell's wellness and incentive programs reduce medical spending. But it is clear that the company is benefiting financially from the penalties. Slightly more than 10 percent of the company's U.S. employees, or roughly 5,000, did not participate, resulting in savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Last year, Honeywell was sued over its wellness program by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC argued that requiring workers to answer personal questions in the health questionnaire - including if they ever feel depressed and whether they've been diagnosed with a long list of illnesses - can violate federal law if they involve disabilities, as these examples do. And, if answering is not voluntary.

"Financial incentives and disincentives may make the programs involuntary" and thus illegal, said Chris Kuczynski, an assistant legal counsel at the EEOC.

Using the same argument, the EEOC also sued Wisconsin-based Orion Energy Systems, where an employee who declined to undergo screening by clinic workers the company hired was told she would have to pay the full $5,000 annual insurance premium.



SICK? PAY MORE.

Some vendors that run workplace wellness for large employers promote their programs by promising to shift costs to "higher utilizers" of health care services, according to a recent analysis by Lorin Volk and Sabrina Corlette of Georgetown University Health Policy Institute - and by making workers "earn" contributions to their healthcare plans that were once automatic.

Consider Jill, who asked that her name not be used for fear of retaliation from the company. A few years ago, her employer, Lockheed Martin, provided hundreds of dollars per year to each worker to help defray insurance deductibles. Since it implemented its new wellness program, workers must now earn that contribution by, among other things, quitting smoking (something non-smokers can't do) and racking up steps on a company-supplied pedometer.

"Basically, if you don't participate in these programs, you have to pay something like $1,000 out of pocket for healthcare before insurance kicks in," said Jill.

Companies insist the penalties are not intended to be money-makers, but to encourage workers to improve their health and thereby avoid serious, and expensive, illness.

As evidence of that, said Honeywell's Covert, the company offers employees "easy ways to get out of" some of the wellness requirements, such as certifying that they do not smoke rather than submitting to a blood test.

BALANCING THE WELLNESS BOOKS

Why are companies so keen on such plans?

Most large employers are self-insured, meaning they pay medical claims out of revenue. As a result, wellness penalties also accrue to the bottom line.

About 95 percent of large U.S. employers offer workplace wellness programs. The programs cost around $100 to $300 per worker per year, but generally save far less than that in medical costs. A 2013 analysis by the RAND think tank commissioned by Congress found that annual healthcare spending for program participants was $25 to $40 lower than for non-participants over five years.

Yet at most large companies that impose penalties for not participating in workplace wellness, the amount is $500 or more, according to a 2014 survey by the Kaiser foundation.

"For economic reasons, most employers would prefer collecting the penalties," said Al Lewis, a wellness-outcomes consultant and co-author of the 2014 book "Surviving Workplace Wellness."

Lori, for instance, an employee at Pittsburgh-based health insurer Highmark, is paying $4,200 a year more for her family benefits because she declined to answer a health questionnaire or submit to company-run screenings for smoking, blood glucose, cholesterol, and blood pressure. She is concerned about the privacy of the online questionnaire, she said, and resents being told by her employer how to stay healthy.

Highmark vice president Anna Silberman, though, doesn't see it that way. She said the premium reductions that participants get "are a very powerful incentive for driving behavior," and that "people deserve to be rewarded for both effort and outcomes."

http://news.yahoo.com/coming-soon-workplace-near-wellness-else-120801472.html

acptulsa
01-13-2015, 09:22 AM
Was this an issue before Obamacare?

No, getting the handicapped equal employment opportunities was the issue. And in their boundless compassion, the progs fought for it tooth and nail. And now that their attention has turned to a new omelet, the progs in their boundless compassion are breaking the very eggs they used to incubate with such loving care.

Anti Federalist
01-13-2015, 11:22 AM
Told you so.

Maybe we could have done something to stop it, had not so many in our camp said:

"An employer can tell an employee what to do, whenever, however, and for any reason, or no reason, at all."

So now, through the insurance mafia coupled with fascist government, this nightmare is soon to be everywhere.

"Go get another job if you don't like it" is now a hollow joke.

Nice going "freedom folks"...the fascists just played you like a fucking fiddle.

ZENemy
01-13-2015, 11:24 AM
Lets withhold payment of income taxes as a group. There are enough people on this forum alone to make an impact.

We sit here all day waiting and hoping for someone to fix our problems, nobody is coming to rescue us, no amount of internet chatter will make a change.

These people understand 2 things, money and violence.

willwash
01-13-2015, 11:42 AM
Told you so.

Maybe we could have done something to stop it, had not so many in our camp said:

"An employer can tell an employee what to do, whenever, however, and for any reason, or no reason, at all."

So now, through the insurance mafia coupled with fascist government, this nightmare is soon to be everywhere.

"Go get another job if you don't like it" is now a hollow joke.

Nice going "freedom folks"...the fascists just played you like a fucking fiddle.

The truly unfortunate thing is that this is true, but only in a free society. in a fascist corporatist system like ours there is no difference between the government telling you what to do directly or telling you what to do by proxy through your "private" employer. Just as there is no real difference between a direct tax an a tax by proxy effected by forcing "private" companies to comply with regulations whose cost is passed on to consumers. either way, money is involuntarily extracted from the public in order to achieve some objective im[posed by govt

Acala
01-13-2015, 12:00 PM
This was really the result of several events over time. Among them are the following:

1. Government pushed employers to offer health care coverage.
2. Government forced insurance companies to offer certain coverage.
3. Crony-captialism drove the cost of health care sky high.

Now health "insurance" isn't really insurance anymore, but a kind of fascist government health care program. And, as is always the case, triage for scarce resources will commence.

If there were truly a free market, I would absolutely want there to be limited admission to my health insurance risk pool. You smoke? Overweight? Suffer from chronic stress? Find another pool, buddy. I'm not going to pay for your bad choices. But, since the whole bloody thing is a government-run debacle with little if any choice for consumers, well, expect the worst.

Acala
01-13-2015, 12:01 PM
The truly unfortunate thing is that this is true, but only in a free society. in a fascist corporatist system like ours there is no difference between the government telling you what to do directly or telling you what to do by proxy through your "private" employer. Just as there is no real difference between a direct tax an a tax by proxy effected by forcing "private" companies to comply with regulations whose cost is passed on to consumers. either way, money is involuntarily extracted from the public in order to achieve some objective im[posed by govt

Yup. Freedom is not the enemy. Government coercion is the enemy.

tod evans
01-13-2015, 12:14 PM
How is it that one can expect government to regulate private business but not want government regulation in their personal life?

Evil "big business" would be out of business without government to support it.

Once again I see government as the problem, not the solution.

Tod
01-13-2015, 12:48 PM
So do like I did and start your own business if you don't like what these companies are doing. Or form a union that fights this crap.

donnay
01-13-2015, 01:32 PM
It's all about tracking every citizen--tracking you online; tracking you in your car; tracking the way you spend your money and tracking your habits.

"A government big enough to give you everything you need, is big enough to take it all away."

Anti Federalist
01-14-2015, 12:18 AM
///

DamianTV
01-14-2015, 01:11 AM
Told you so.

Maybe we could have done something to stop it, had not so many in our camp said:

"An employer can tell an employee what to do, whenever, however, and for any reason, or no reason, at all."

So now, through the insurance mafia coupled with fascist government, this nightmare is soon to be everywhere.

"Go get another job if you don't like it" is now a hollow joke.

Nice going "freedom folks"...the fascists just played you like a fucking fiddle.

Employment is now a demand of Total Obedience, even outside the workplace, not one of mutual cooperation and respect. Employees are Disposable. Get another job? If the real jobs were not so exceptionally rare, this might be possible, but when you have a higher chance of getting into Harvard than even getting a fucking part time job at Walmart, that doesnt even offer insurace (part time), you can see just how desperate people are to work, and how they get fucked no matter which way they turn.

Corporate Obedience.

Mom and Pop stores that have an employee are the ones that recognize the employee is as much of a human being as they are. To corporations, we are cannon fodder. We are a barrel of rotten apples, and they want to cherry pick. They are not looking for the best worker, the smartest, or the most qualified. They are looking for those that are going to be the most Obedient. Do what we tell you to do. That is a corporation in a nutshell. And many flat out act like they fucking own you. Do what we tell you to do, OR ELSE. That is the corporate way. If you question our policy against prohibition of ALL alcohol, even alcohol used for cleaning and sterilization, you will be terminated (read: disposed of and replaced).

In a Slave Economy, People ARE The Product Bought and Sold

Humanity has been reduced to the statistics that represent who we are. You have X number of kids. You are X race. You are X religion. You bought X degrees / diplomas / certificates. The more you show obedience, the more you are likely to survive. Survive. That is an interesting way to say it. To have ones mind, body, product of your labor, and your entire life managed by Corporations from Cradle to Grave, that isnt what I would call survival. Sure, your heat may still pump blood, but the soul has died a long time ago. Many people are now only the obedient robot versions of themselves, mere shadows of what they could have been if not deprived of everything by the Corporations. We are no longer even Employees. We are DISPOSABLE. Show any signs of disobedience, or any other characteristic that qualifies you for immediate disposal, and you'll be kicked to the curb faster than shitting your pants takes to cause your nuthuggers to stain. Since people are now so easily replaced, we are systematically replaced. We are now the products that are bought and sold and packed up and offered to the lowest bidder. If we are defective, they just move right down the line to cherry pick who will be harvested, then disposed of. In the end, we are all disposed of by Corporations. We are either immediately discarded, or discarded the second we are no longer useful. They will not pay us any more than they can get away with. If they can go 20 years and never give you a raise or a bonus or health insurance, they wont. And those are the jobs that are available on the market today. The disposable jobs created specifically for disposable people. These jobs are temporary part time minimum wage no benefit and no future jobs. And we are picking off the crumbs left to us by those who own the Corporations. Is it any wonder why we fight amongst ourselves over these precious scraps? Is it any wonder why we both look at Corporations with both disdain and envy? We want to be as rich as they are while simultaneously despising the way that they got there. We have distorted our perceptions of each other to think that every single one of us should be as easily brished aside as a Corporation picks up a new temporary employee. We dispose of our friends and significant others just as we know we are expected to dispose of any product or service once it has reached the end of its shelf life.

Conspiracy?

There is always a fun point of conjecture. Some think that all these corporations are in a true to life conspiracy. Yet, we fall for their bait damn near each and every time, and swallow the bait, hook line and sinker. We have ended up being in a conspiracy against ourselves when we begin to adopt the perspectives of Corporate Policy as our own moral standards. When we think that "the right thing" to do is to give Bankers every last dime you earn and expect to get it all back, we wonder why we get fucked time and time again. Hell, they arent even using new tactics, but the same old ones that we continue to fall for. We have allowed these things to happen. And this has been pulled off as the wool has been pulled over our eyes while we point the finger at one another, they are just as viciously at each others throats, if not more so. These corporations do not agree with each other. They are at WAR with each other. There is one thing they do agree on and that is the Total Enslavement of Humanity is the Ultimate Goal. Your MANDATORY Insurance Company demands to own your body and health while your Employer (if you are so lucky) demands to own the product of your Labor. Everyone else is finding ways to separate you from the few measly table scraps that are left. If you are fortunate enough to get a paycheck, it is probably completely spent on bills and other utilities before you even have access to it.

More than One Type of Slavery

The common definition of Slavery is Total Ownership of a Human Being. Thus, all products a human creates are the property of their masters. But what happens when a human is subdivided? Your labor belongs to your employer, while your intelligence has manufactured wealth for the Indoctrinating Educators. Your health is property of your mandatory Health Insurance, but you still have no guarantee that you will receive Care despite having Health Coverage. You have been Subdivided into Pork Chops, Loin, Roast, Rump, and every other way in which you can be divided. But that does not qualify as Slavery unless you are a whole and complete package. See the problem is that there are so many ways to cause harm to an individual that each of those ways produces another type of Slavery. The Debt Slaves. Also known as The Educated Poor. Those who have surrendered their minds in exchange for going greatly into debt. They become a prime example of Intellectual Slavery. Your thoughts are what someone else has told you to think. To pull this off, they first use Group Psychology so that you accept the wisdom of the group as opposed to what you believe and hold to be true. The Emotional Slave. You are not good enough unless you have a really fucking expensive piece of paper. You should be Disposed Of if you do not meet someone elses qualifications for what is "good". At every aspect, you are constantly reminded that unless you are the thing that other people envy, you should envy others who you are told to envy. Envy the Jonses because they have a faster car / bigger house / prettier daughter. It facilitates the survival of the Debt Machine, and even God can not save you. Depending on where you live in the world, Christianity may or may not be the predominant religion of where you live. But make no mistake, religions worldwide can be just as much of a furtherer of Slavery. Your Pastor / Rabi / Preacher owns your soul, not God or Jesus or what ever deity or deities they claim to hide behind. This ties in closely with Emotional Slavery. You are not a good person if your Church / Synagogue / Cult / Coven does not say you are a good person in God X's eyes. It isnt the true words of that God, but the ones of the Religious Leaders that has the potential to enslave you emotionally to their will until many become Spiritual Slaves. Christians, Im not trying to insult any of you, or any other religion. But there are Cults everywhere, extremist versions of reasonable peace loving religions. Since many seem to not have too much issue with attacking Islamic Extremists, I'll use them. Kill whitey and you'll get 73 virgins. The Emotional Slavery is so severe and brainwashing so deep that people are willing to kill themselves while operating under the beliefs that they will die, then get their dicks sucked. Problem with the theory of 73 virgins is that there is only one winner and 73 losers. Things dont work out so great if you are one of the 73 virgins. Those that truly believe the whole 73 virgins or whatever the number is are a perfect example of Spiritual Slavery, not religions of moderation and mutual respect.

Data Slaves

This has to be the Holy Grail of Enslavement. Anything you do that could offend your Controllers, literally anything, is subject to their approval. The most common notion of this is "nothing worng, nothing to hide". Ive said this so many times I am getting sick of saying it. It has nothing to do with Right and Wrong; Right and Wrong are Subjective Opinions. And someone, somewhere will inevitably take issue with at least one thing you do. And this is the foot in the door. If you are brushing your teeth, then you will have no problem with Authority monitoring you to make sure you brush your teeth. And every other aspect of your lives. Ever try to buy a used car? Do you think you paid the exact same price as someone else would have gotten for the exact same car? Hell no. They fuck you at every opportunity. What you pay for the car will be different than what someone else pays, which is always as much as they can get away with charging you. Now try applying that to Health Insurance, as stated in the OP Article. Its all the Data Mining that is going to enable them to know if you smoke or are overweight or eat too much bacon, and they are gonna use it to own your body. You will be a Health Slave to the Health Insurance Corporations, a Political Slave to the Political Factions, Intellectual Slave to your expensive as fuck Indoctrination Facility, and if you are very unlucky, a Spiritual Slave to an exceptionally extreme Cult that puts Religious Beliefs ahead of the value of Human Life.

The Human Race has been chewed up and spit back out. We are the aftermath of what is left. Our demise will be sure to follow suit soon enough. Perhaps one day, after this version of civilization has eradicated itself by its own greedy slave mongering hands, we can rise up from the ashes to find whole new ways to fail as a species.

CaptainAmerica
01-14-2015, 02:00 AM
Was this an issue before Obamacare?


http://news.yahoo.com/coming-soon-workplace-near-wellness-else-120801472.html
Fascism or else, is basically what it is

euphemia
01-14-2015, 07:21 AM
My insurance provider calls my house incessantly to get me to sign up for wellness. Why would I do that? I have very good doctors and I see them all regularly. Why do I need a health coach. If they would pay for the knee treatment my doctor recommends, I might be able to walk without pain and would do a whole lot more of it.

I have become so angry over the robocalls in the evening that I am about to pay a visit to my state rep and ask him to introduce legislation strengthening the state Do Not Call List.

ghengis86
01-14-2015, 08:02 AM
Lets withhold payment of income taxes as a group. There are enough people on this forum alone to make an impact.

We sit here all day waiting and hoping for someone to fix our problems, nobody is coming to rescue us, no amount of internet chatter will make a change.

These people understand 2 things, money and violence.

Inciting a tax revolt. There's one of your three felonies you will commit today. Report to FEMA camp 4 please.

One problem; the vast majority of individual income taxes are automatically deducted and withheld by employers. And I believe there are certain penalties imposed by the IRS if you're claiming, say, 20 exemptions so there's no withholding throughout the year and there a large tax bill for you to pay. I also know that some companies will prohibit employees from making ridiculous exemptions claims.

So, first step is laying out a clear, step by step guide for a successful tax revolt, were one to hypothetically go down this path. It would include:
-how to adjust withholding
-what form to submit
-how to respond to inquiries by employer or IRS
-what to file come April 15th
-how to protect wage garnishment

Then, get a pledge page going and set a goal of, "we've calculated that we need 10 million people to be successful, etc etc"

Spread far and wide. They can't put us all in jail, amirite?

DamianTV
01-14-2015, 10:11 AM
Inciting a tax revolt. There's one of your three felonies you will commit today. Report to FEMA camp 4 please.

One problem; the vast majority of individual income taxes are automatically deducted and withheld by employers. And I believe there are certain penalties imposed by the IRS if you're claiming, say, 20 exemptions so there's no withholding throughout the year and there a large tax bill for you to pay. I also know that some companies will prohibit employees from making ridiculous exemptions claims.

So, first step is laying out a clear, step by step guide for a successful tax revolt, were one to hypothetically go down this path. It would include:
-how to adjust withholding
-what form to submit
-how to respond to inquiries by employer or IRS
-what to file come April 15th
-how to protect wage garnishment

Then, get a pledge page going and set a goal of, "we've calculated that we need 10 million people to be successful, etc etc"

Spread far and wide. They can't put us all in jail, amirite?

Hint: The Border Fence isnt there to keep illegal immigrants out, it is there to keep us IN.

The "No Fly List"? When does that turn into the "No LEAVE List"?

Standard Human Livestock Management Practices. Welcome to the USA, Inc. A Human FARM.

Anti Federalist
01-14-2015, 10:15 AM
Hint: The Border Fence isnt there to keep illegal immigrants out, it is there to keep us IN.

The "No Fly List"? When does that turn into the "No LEAVE List"?

Standard Human Livestock Management Practices. Welcome to the USA, Inc. A Human FARM.

All this to keep the livestock healthy and producing tax revenue for a good long while.