August 25, 2008
Alabama warns its employees: trim your belly or your wallet
The state of Alabama hopes to motivate state employees to lose weight by charging obese employees $25 a month for health insurance that otherwise is free.
The plan, approved last week by the Alabama State Employees Insurance Board, requires 32,527 state workers to get free health screenings by January 2010 or faces charges. Associated Press reports:
If the screenings turn up serious problems with blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose or obesity, employees will have a year to see a doctor at no cost, enroll in a wellness program, or take steps on their own to improve their health. If they show progress in a follow-up screening, they won't be charged. But if they don't, they must pay starting in January 2011.
The screenings and wellness programs will cost the state $1.6 million. But board officials expects long-term savings, pointing to research showing "someone with a body mass index of 35 to 39 generates $1,748 more in annual medical expenses than someone with a BMI less than 25, considered normal."
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control, 30.3 percent of Alabama residents are overweight, ranking the state second only to Mississippi nationally.
Alabama will be the first state to impose a surcharge on overweight workers, AP reports. A few states offer financial incentives for pursuing healthy lifestyles.
One Alabama state employee, who now pays $24 a month because he smokes, calls the obesity fee "too Big Brotherish." In contrast, the executive director of the Alabama State Employees Association, says of the plan, "It's a positive."
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