Posted on 10. May, 2009 by admin in News
Today’s New York Times reports that Congress is considering expanding the ways in which employers and insurers can reward people for adopting habits such as quitting smoking, eating a healthy diet and exercising. The idea enjoys bipartisan support:
Two Democratic senators working on comprehensive health legislation, Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Finance Committee, and Tom Harkin of Iowa, have taken the lead in devising such incentives.
“Prevention and wellness should be a centerpiece of health care reform,” said Mr. Harkin, who regularly climbs the stairs to his seventh-floor office on Capitol Hill.
The White House agrees. One of President Obama’s eight principles for health legislation is that it must “invest in prevention and wellness,” a goal espoused in almost identical words by Republican senators like John Cornyn of Texas and Orrin G. Hatch of Utah.
At the Center for Health Value Innovation, we’ve seen how well such programs work. A small investment — lowering co-payments for diabetes medications, for example — can yield great results in terms of health and cost.
Read the whole article here.
Tags: Baucus, incentives, prevention, Senate, senate finance, wellness
