Corporate wellness programs:
Corporate America has made big strides toward the smoke-free workplace. Its next goal: the smoke-free worker.
Many businesses are seeking to reduce their medical bills by paying for programs to help employees stop smoking. A decade ago, such programs were rare. But recent surveys indicate that one-third of companies with at least 200 workers now offer smoking cessation as part of their employee benefits package. Among the nation’s biggest companies, the number may be nearly two-thirds of employers.
“Tobacco cessation has been the hot topic for the last year,” said Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, which includes more than 200 large employers.
The programs are yet another example, along with various other corporate wellness efforts like weight management and diabetes control, of how private employers are taking health care reform into their own hands, even as politicians continue to debate proposals and tactics in Washington and on the campaign trail.
My employer has had incentives to not use tobacco for years, although I am not sure if there are weight management and diabetes programs. Kind of interesting that one of the outcomes of private health insurance is that your private employer is concerned with your private life.
Read the whole thing.
Zifnab
The prospect of not paying astronomical insurance rates is probably a big selling point for companies to hire and keep healthy employees. That said, it’s worth noting that Japanese businesses have been doing this for years.
Dreggas
While an incentive program is all well and good there are plenty of companies doing the reverse, penalizing employees for smoking by adding a “smoking fee” as a deduction to be deducted from their paycheck.
Someone mentioned to me that my company offers incentives as well, though I am not sure what they are and waiting to hear back from HR. While I despise the demonization of smokers, I have to admit I feel damn good now that I quit and the reality of it is that damn people who smoke do stink, badly.
capelza
Wellness programs are great..but I do get uneasy when companies start to “take an interest” in an employee’s personal life. When does it end?
You do your work and then you go home and what you do there is none of their business. Companies do have a right to secure the bottomline and maximize profits..to an extent. But when the work relationship becomes intrusive (and this is certainly one sided..the company certainly wouldn’t welcome such intrusion into their behaviours) it bother me.
Billy K
My large corporate employer is way too involved with my personal life.
I just quit smoking. I’m enjoying being a non-smoker. Still, this witch hunt has gone too far. Local news last night ran a feature on non-smoking hospitals. You can’t smokme anywhere on the property – even outside. How the hell are addicts supposed to cope with this? Oh, that’s right. Quit, like Big Brother says you should.
It’s creeping totalitarianism* – and fatty foods is the next step.
*Or whatever the term is where the government controls your body. I not that smarts.
Enough is enough
Smokers! I stand out in the rain while you smoke in the bus shelter. I sit next to you in all your smokers stink on the bus. You stand upwind of me at the intersection waiting to cross the street and your stinking cancerous smoke hits me in the nose. Cope with your addiction like the heroin addicts do-find a dumpster in an ally and crouch down behind it. Your right to smoke and stink stops at my nose!
Gold Star for Robot Boy
When do alcohol drinkers find themselves alone, in the spotlight?
capelza
Oh crap..Enough is enough..if you are standing in the bus shelter, the fucking diesel fumes must really offend you…I can’t stand downtowns because of the smell of exhaust. It literally makes me light headed..I’m too used to my small town and country air.
What next? Will you be one of those tourists who come to our bayfront to soak up the maritime air and then bitch to high heaven when you actually have to smell the stink of fishermen and fish? Because that’s what bayfronts in fishing towns smell like.
Or visit a farm and the stink fo the barnyard offends you? Like people who build houses around a farm and then want to farm to quit, because OMGZ farms smell!
Life stinks…literally.
Will you be offended I quite possibly you already are…by that morbidly obese person or that geriatric person, both of whom have an smell..my god, they might actually want to sit in the bus shelter, too.
I am sure that once you’ve driven the smoker’s away, you’ll find something else to offend your nose.
Sorry, I am just sick of the “smokers are evil and life will be perfect when we send them to Gitmo..but they have to keep smoking because that’s how we are going to pay for our health plans!”.
Enough is enough
And your point is Capelza? that if I can’t avoid all the bad smells in the world I shouldn’t complain about those that can be avoided? A lot of straw men in your comments. I’m not complaining about the smell of fish and barnyards. I’m complaining about about a specific behavior by human beings I have to share space with who make a choice to become pathetic nicotine addicts and inflict their stinking habit on me. Their right to smoke stops at my nose. Just like my right to swing my fist stops at their nose.
As far as smokers being evil: by purchasing cigarettes they provide the tobacco industry with the profits that allow them to continue in their business of addicting and killing people. Compare the 400.000 Americans they kill each year to the 3000 that died in the world trade center and I conclude we are bombing the wrong enemy. Capelza, why do you smokers hate America?
capelza
Why do you assume I smoke?
I am just tired of the hypocrisy. Be your self-righteous bad self.
The real hypocrisy (and this was my problem wih SCHIP expansion though I support it) is that they want to tax something like healthcare for children on the backs of the evil smokers. Yet the goal is to make people quit smoking..so if that goal is achieved (and they want to write a cigarette tax into the constitution here in Oregon for this) how will we then pay for these programs?
It’s actually a cowards way to pay for it. If you want to fund children’s healthcare then just fucking fund it!
Yeah., maybe those were strawmen..I just hate pompous assholes.
capelza
Oh yeah..btw, 400,000+ deaths year to obesity, too..it is actually going to be a bigger killer than smoking.
Maybe those Ho-Ho addicts need to crawl back behind the dumpster,too…
Enough is enough
Wow! Disagree with capelza about smoking-get called a hypocrite, and self-rigteous. Be accused of having a goal of making people stop smoking. And get a lecture on SCHIP and be called a pompous asshole to boot.
I tried to keep it simple capelza. I’ll try again. SMOKER’S RIGHTS STOP AT MY NOSE!
capelza
Sorry for the “and another thing” post.
Why not tax crap food for healthcare as well? I’d gladly pay extra for that occasional bag of Cheetos (the crunchy kind!).
It’s the “witchhunt” the smokers thing I don’t like…tax all “bad things”…
It’s people like Enough is enough that make me want to START smoking again.
capelza
I have a goal that everyone eats exactly like I do…it’s healthy and avoids HFCS, fats and is based on lentils and tofu (organic of course).
People that eat meat stink…I can smell them a mile away and it is offensive.
Actually that’s not me, but a vegetarian friend…but why should they have to put up with “stink” from unhealthy eaters? CRAPFOOD EATER’S RIGHTS STOP AT MY NOSE!
capelza
Actually the smell I find most offensive in crowds is perfume and aftershave…I really, honestly don’t like the smell when it is slathered on.
When i am out in public, the smell of a cigarette getting lit, or a pipe…sorry, that just makes me nostalgic.
Ask yourself, with the real decline in smoking why the Portland metro area is seeing a huge spike in childhood respiratory illnesses at the same time?
Could it be, just possibly, all those non-smokers drving around spewing exhaust into the air? See, everyone has someone else to point to like a pod person from “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”.
Enough is enough
Your cogent and thoughtful arguments have won me over capelza. Today I’m going to search the city until I find an obese person in a bus shelter eating junk food, drinking a soft drink and smoking a cigarette. I’m going to kiss that person on the lips and tell ’em “Capelza sent me.” And then I’m going to buy a pack of cigarettes because, I too, support SCHIP.
Oh yeah! My wife thinks I’m a pompous asshole too.
Enough is enough
OOP! I missed this insightful capelza comment:
“Ask yourself, with the real decline in smoking why the Portland metro area is seeing a huge spike in childhood respiratory illnesses at the same time?”
Why capelza, the answer is as clear as the nose on one’s face. A decline in smoking leads to an increase in childhood respiratory illnesses. For the sake of the children-I’m going to buy two packs of cigarettes.
And as to the smell “crapfood eaters.” I’ve been a vegetarian for 25 years. I find that KFC restaurants stink but I haven’t noticed any problems with the smell of “crapfood eaters” themselves.
capelza
Good, because that’s how the health police intend to pay for extended child care. That 61 cents a pack has to come from somewhere (and whatever they want in Oregon for the same thing)…because we certainly won’t tax anything that might affect anyone but the evil smokers.
Childhood obesity has nothing to do with smokers, but everything to do with crap food. It has a direct bearing on children’s health and will continue to do so, long after all the evil smokers who are supposed to support it have keeled over or quit.
Glad to know I am not the only one. ;)
That reminds me…will the concern for employee’s private lives extend to their families? Will the employers put the whole family on a diet? Send out menus with the paycheck?
And yes I am very cranky today.
grumpy realist
Hmmm, wonder what the libertarians think of this? (Not the above slang-fest in the thread, but the private-company-becoming-increasingly-involved-in-workers-private-lives.)
Hey, if a “private entity” does it, it should be fine! After all, you can “always find another job” if you don’t agree, right?
(And then I turn around and use the same argument about gov’t and “if you don’t like it, you can always find another country.” And then the libertarians get mad at me, say “but with a goverment it’s totally different!” and call me rude names.)
Silly people.
capelza
Now you’re just being stupid. The rise in children’s illnesses has everything to do with other forms of pollution, ones on a much greater scale than walking by a smoker. But people don’t want to deal with THAT..they’d have to change THEIR lifestyle…no, no…
And just as I don’t notice the “stink” of smokers anymore than I notice the stink of people in general (including the heady aroma of a fisherman..that mix of diesel and old fish that won’t come out in the wash)..some people who are vegetarians insist that they do find the smell of meat eaters foul and offensive.
But they are pompous asses, too.
Enough is enough
If I was you capelza-I’d be cranky too. Bye-don’t let your meatloaf.
The Other Steve
Our company did something different.
They just made it inconvenient to smoke. We used to have a smoking lounge, complete with a TV. Then they said “Outside with you!”…
Then they moved the smoking area to the top floor of the parking ramp.
The Other Steve
And replace it with ever more High Fructose Corn Syrup. The very thing that is killing our country.
The Other Steve
I don’t think you need to be a vegetarian or even a libertarian to realize KFC restaurants stink.
The Other Steve
I’m sure the Libertarians think it’s a good thing. Or at the very least, they’re still more concerned with low taxes.
libertarians on the other hand probably find it obnoxious.
capelza
Karo nation.
My dad, Southern boy that he was used to pour that stuff straight out of the bottle into peanut butter and eat it. I guess that is less insidious and more honest, but gack…I can’t even look at the bottle in my house without getting the shivers. I have it because it for the annual Pecan pie at the Holidays…
Doubting Thomas
How come all you reformed smokers all act like judgmental jerks when you quit?
grumpy realist
The only thing I can think about doing with Karo corn syrup is using it to demonstrate the helicity of naturally-produced organic molecules through optical activity.
(Take a fish-tank full of corn syrup that has polarizing film on either side. Shine a beam of white light through a polarizer at one end of the fish tank towards the other end. Result: pretty colors on the sides of the fish tank as the E&M fields get further rotated by the optically active material that is corn syrup. Polarizing molecules (synthesized) with equal numbers of right-handed and left-handed molecules will not be optically active and will not demonstrate such behavior.)
jrg
My god, what a whiny bitch you must be.
Seriously, companies are now drug-testing employees and firing them for nicotine use. I remember warning people about this when companies started drug testing years back.
I don’t understand the point of these “wellness” programs if I can go to the vending machine at work and buy as many Snickers bars as I want. Why not just outlaw cigarettes, soda, and snack food altogether and get it over with?
That said, I refuse to work for any company that drug tests, anyway, so it’s no skin off my back.
Dreggas
Enough is Enough,
First off I take exception to being called a “pathetic nicotine addict”, of course I quit smoking, but the bottom line is you can go fuck yourself for that one right there.
Further you say a persons right to smoke stops at your nose? Well here’s a free choice for you…breathe through your mouth. Like I said the smell of cigarettes does stink, especially now that I can smell it, but your condescending shitty attitude stinks even worse. Here’s a clue for you smoking will never be completely banned because the government relies far too heavily on it.
Dreggas
That was an observation, not a judgement per se. Now that I can smell again you can definitely tell when someone has been smoking, at least if they are what I used to call “dirty smokers”. It really is noticable. Truthfully I don’t care if people still smoke, it’s their choice. I chose to quit. I vowed never to be one of those judgemental ex-smokers.
Dreggas
No joke. The second I quit drinking soda (or at least soda made with HFCS) I started losing weight. I switched to homemade iced tea with sugar added (try to use sugar in the raw when I can).
ConservativelyLiberal
Smokers are evil. We just sit around waiting for a non-smoker, and when one shows up we light up, stand near them and blow the smoke in their direction. It delights us to see the non-smoker wretch, gasp and keel over from the fumes. We love to get taxed to death for our nasty habits. We love to be constantly berated by non-smokers because at heart we are attention seekers.
Look! I smoke, and I a smelly asshole!
Wait people, right now it is smokers. When it comes to profit, the insurance companies are going to do everything they can to maximize it and reduce expenses. They are not doing this for the good of our health, it is for the bottom line. Plain and simple.Want to see the same thing on Oreos, McBurgers and so on? Keep it up and when the smokers have been tapped out you can bet that you will be next. The insurance companies will validate what they are doing by pointing out the impact of poor food choices on
profitsa persons health.This latest run at increasing the cigarette tax is just another assault on us. Non-smokers like to think they are sticking it to the tobacco companies, but they are only fooling themselves. The smokers pay for it. Or at least we will until the proverbial straw breaks the camels back. It is nearing that point for some, including me.
Look into what happened to the tax and lawsuit money that has been collected over the years. Very little of it goes for what it was intended for. In Oregon, the Dems could not pass the tax increase in office so they want to write a tobacco tax into the Oregon Constitution by putting it in front of the people for a vote. With 18% of Oregonians who are smokers, we don’t stand a chance. The majority will pass it and say that they are doing something good for the kids. Forget about the $65 million that the state will skim off the top of it.
The Measure 50 in Oregon will boost cig taxes to over 80 cents a pack. That is $8.00 a carton, or about another $300 a year to the pack a day smoker. Add S-CHIP taxes and that goes to over $500 a year increase.
The worse this gets, the more I want universal health care. That way everyone gets screwed equally. Well, except the rich, they always get a free pass!
Hey! I smoke and live in a coastal community that has a harbor and fishing vessels. I must really stink! ;)
I have to laugh when non-smokers in the big city complain about smokers. These idiots live in a world of carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbon fumes that they breathe all day, but a smoker passes by and they have breathing problems.
What a fucking joke!
Dreggas
ConservativelyLiberal,
I quit myself partially because of the BS regarding SCHIP. That being said I agree with every point you made.
capelza
That’s not fish you smell..that’s money! :)
That constitution thing really pisses me off…sometimes I hate the ballot measures…actually I have since Lon Mabon tortured us all those years.
That and measure 5…and measure 11. What a mistake.
The Other Steve
Amen. Stopped drinking soda about a month ago. I’m down around 8 lbs just from that. I had to cut out all caffeine, as that was the primary reason I drank the soda. Had to remove the addiction.
My girlfriend has the absolute worst diet in the world according to American doctors. Breakfast consists of eggs and bacon, smoked fish, or a slice of braunsweiger on toast, with a cup of tea. It’s like a pure fat diet.
Her Cholesteral is perfect. LDL is like 120, HDL is 60 and triglycerides are around 100.
Me. My LDL is like 150, and my HDL is only 30 and my triglycerides are like 200.
What do I eat? Well I used to eat cereal. This past month I changed. Now it’s peanut butter on toast.
I used to get hungry around 10am, and I’d go to the vending machine and get a soda and some chips or cookies or something. With the peanut butter, I’m not hungry until noon and i don’t go for the soda. Although I might get some hot chocolate from the lunch room.(it uses sugar, not corn syrup)
Two things I’ve since read. fat is harder to digest, so it sits in your stomach longer. Eating a bit of fat in the morning keeps you satisfied longer.
the other thing. Corn Syrup, apparently is an appetite enhancer. There are signals that say “I’m hungry”, and “I’m full”. Corn Syrup causes the “I’m hungry” signal to fire. Regular sugar doesn’t do that.
I’m convinced that the corn syrup is the root cause of our obesity problem. That, and the dumb advice against fats.
capelza
TOC…don’t laugh, but you “I’m hungry” signal reminded of one use that Karo syrup has. A couple of tablespoons is a real remedy for constipation.
Dreggas
TOS,
I know. Fortunately a lot of companies are starting to change that. I found Cream Soda the other day made with Sugar, sobe uses Sugar in their drinks and lipton also is putting out, in addition to the regular (sweetened with HFCS) iced tea ones sweetened with honey or sugar.
It’s about damn time too.
Keith
I don’t like the trend personally because it can lead to certain intrusions on one’s personal lives that the government has largely been forbidden to do. I’ve heard anectodes of companies performing blood-based drug tests that test not only for illegal drugs, but also for nicotine. Rationalization? Insurance rates. Yep, where government can’t tread (or must tread deftly), good ol’ private business can. It’s a Pandora’s Box where you can (and do) wind up with businesses terminating individuals for infidelity (and other moral transgressions) or even dating co-workers. Smoke a cigar in the evening? Forget “what about the children?”…now it’s “what about everyone else’s insurance rates?” (much like homeowners’ associations restrict what property owners can do to their own property because it affects others’ property values).
If the government can’t force you to do what’s good for you, the real government (capitalism) will. All hail Omni-Consumer Products!
ConservativelyLiberal
Thanks Dreggas… :)
What if insurance companies or the government decide that gun and/or ammo manufacturers have to pay higher rates or a tax to support paying for all of the gunshot wounds from murders, accidents and the inner city gangs (LA, NY, etc). Or how about a tax on sporting gear due to sports injuries? Or how about a tax on all foods that a panel of experts assembled by the insurance industry has decided are bad for you? How about taxing or charging a fee to parents of high school kids who are in sports to cover the cost of injuries?
All of these things affect insurance costs. This can go on and on, and if allowed to it will. Don’t think you will be exempt from every tax. If someone demonizes it, someone else is going to make you pay for it. Using the majority to impose taxes on a minority is patently unfair. Those who don’t have to pay get to feel good as they have done something for ‘the kids’. Especially nice is the fact that it is no skin off their back. They dumped the costs on a dirty, filthy, smelly, annoying minority of people that they dislike. They have done their good deed for the day. I guess that we are supposed to feel good that shortening our lives (by our own choice, may I add) is helping poor kids get medical coverage.
If S-CHIP is so good, the cost should be carried by all. The current funding proposal is just wrong. And unfair.
Jess
Here’s something that I’m pompously self-righteous about: I won’t buy from a store that proclaims that it drug-tests its employees (PepBoys is one example). Employers have no right to intrude on their employees lives after work. That’s the sort of thing I would expect in a communist dictatorship–I’m shocked that there’s not more outcry about it here, but if they start targeting smokers that’ll change. So I guess it’s a good thing if this happens, in a roundabout sort of way.
jrg
Amen. I walked into The Home Depot one day to see a sign proudly announcing that the drug test their employees. I’ve spent probably 10K at Lowes since then without returning to the Home Depot.
BIRDZILLA
How about a BIG BROTHER FREE ZONE where we wont have big brother looking over our shoulder all the time
Guy Sherr
There is a BIG BROTHERLESS ZONE. It’s name is Guitar Center, where a senior employee told me, with genuine pride, that the Guitar Center policy absolutely forbids drug testing for prospective and current employees! Of course, it is terribly hard to get a job there if you can’t play an instrument of some sort.
No, kazoo’s do not count (neither do Jaw Harps).