Big Business trying to fix healthcare
A February post from the blog 'Fixin' Healthcare' struck me because I have come to the same conclusion over the last couple years: Big Business will change healthcare in many ways, and more so than government will, and all to reduce costs.One such change is changing the focus to prevention from treatment.
This notion is echoed by a recent article in "Businesses Help Workers to Lose Weight". This article is about the many small businesses that are pushing the wellness industry into the mainstream.
As Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor I call the 'healthy living' governor because of his forceful promotion of obesity-fighting policies, said, "The truth is CEOs are the ones that have to address [the many problems in the healthcare system]."
posted by Niraj "Raj" Patel @ 6/30/2007
2 comments
2 Comments:
Interesting perspective that it all is meant to reduce cost-- at least as a line item in a budget.
Many of these programs will end up costing the same or more-- the issue is getting better results and making trade-offs (such as less comprehensive insurance) more palatable to the average worker.
Do you think that the cost-savings cited by many of the studies are real? The numbers reflected are often "soft"-- with benefits coming from reduced absenteeism, presenteeism (how you calculate this and why its directly related to health, I'm not sure), reduced long term disability, etc that are more based on projections that real line item costs disappearing from the HR person's health spend budget. They are trying to use this to reduce costs--but the number that is important is their liability--and much is likely to come through cost-shifting to employees.
Don't get me wrong, I think wellness is tremendously important for individuals and that companies can help individuals make first steps in improving their lives. Ultimately, I think wellness and optimizing health falls on the consumer, not the company.
I Like your blog,will sharing this with my friends, excellent work.
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