President Obama had this to say in his just completed
speech to the American Medical Association:
Building a health care system that promotes prevention rather
than just managing diseases will require all of us to do our
part. It will take doctors telling us what risk factors we
should avoid and what preventive measures we should pursue. And
it will take employers following the example of places like
Safeway that is rewarding workers for taking better care of
their health while reducing health care costs in the process.
If you're one of the three quarters of Safeway workers enrolled
in their "Healthy Measures" program, you can get screened for
problems like high cholesterol or high blood pressure. And if
you score well, you can pay lower premiums. It's a program that
has helped Safeway cut health care spending by 13% and workers
save over 20% on their premiums. And we are open to doing more
to help employers adopt and expand programs like this one.
But as I
reported last week, the CEO of Safeway said the company would
have to end
the program if the current Democratic proposal in the Senate were
enacted. The problem is that the legislation includes a policy
known as "community rating" which bars insurers from charging
people different premiums based on their health status.
Therefore, an insurer (or business) cannot give discounts to
those who weigh less, don't smoke, maintain lower cholesterol and
blood pressure, and so on.
