Check your waist size! Would you shape up or pay up?
Submitted by falightfoot on Mon, 07/07/2008 - 9:36am.
The Japanese government recently started a new corporate health initiative. Companies are now required to give employee’s aged 40 to 74 a waist measurement at their annual health check ups. Why now? Because currently 5% of the Japanese population is now considered obese and government officials are concerned. The government believes that avoiding disease caused by unhealthy diet and lack of exercise is critical to keeping down the country’s burgeoning health care costs.
Due to the change in the Japanese eating habits, the acceptance of fast food and Western–style cooking (which includes more meat, fat and sugar) the Japanese government has asked corporations to help shoulder the rising cost of health care. If companies don’t make in house changes to get their employees healthy corporations will have to help pay for the $95 billion in private-sector payments that feed into a government-run national health care insurance.
Some companies are measuring the waist of all their employees, regardless of age. Men with waistlines of 33 inches or more and women, 35 inches or more are categorized as having the symptoms linked with obesity. To help encourage employees to get fit and reduce their waistlines companies are offering financial incentives as well as pedometers.
So, how do you feel about having your waist measured by your employer’s health department or at your annual physical? Is this pushing the envelope of health care? Would Americans stand for this kind of treatment? Would you quit your job if your company started this policy?
Personally I think it’s a brilliant idea. According to the Center for Disease Control 34.3% of Americans are classified as obese. The United States is the fattest country in the world! If American’s don’t want to make the choice to get healthy on their own then maybe it’s time to bring it to the workplace as well as to the employer. American’s have access to all the information they need to live a healthy lifestyle – so by their choice to not be healthy they are contributing to our health care crisis.
So, yes . . . .shape up or pay up Americans! And as always, that’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it!
Wind
Shape up or pay up?
This is sounding like another "make 'em pay b/c they're fat" scheme. So, if I'm genetically predisposed to be 'large' does this mean that I pay more for my health care? Doesn't this take us down the slope toward Gattaca? If I'm predestined to be large, I'm going to pay more for basic services (isn't this the case already?) and will live a shorter life. I guess my only option is to do anything I can to get the weight off...
So, what's next? Will we start prorating clothing costs based on the amount of material that it took to make the clothing?