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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – As we plunge ever deeper in debt as a nation, we also are getting sicker. Health care reform that focuses on how we finance the health care system, who pays for it and how we cover the uninsured will mean little if we ignore the fundamental underlying question of health care in the United States: How do we improve the health of the American workforce and those about to enter it? Until we address this problem, our economic competitiveness on the world stage will continue to falter, not as much from the cost of health care but because of the declining productivity of our workforce. It is time to understand that there is a fundamental link between health care reform properly structured and our road to economic recovery. That road must travel through a prevention and wellness landscape that delivers a healthier and more productive workforce.
Employers – the largest purchasers of health care and dependent on a healthy and productive workforce – understand the essential need to promote health. Given that 55% of health care is funded through the workplace in the U.S. and that employers have an economic interest in health improvement of their workers, employers must remain a key part of the American health care landscape. Additionally, most employees often spend more waking hours at work than anywhere else, providing a significant opportunity to positively influence the health of the U.S. workforce through their benefits, compensation and working conditions.
If employers are encouraged and properly incented to promote health through reform, they can be a key point of leverage with plans and providers in moving the cost and quality efforts forward to create better health and, just as importantly, improved productivity outcomes that drive business performance. Current proposals suggest leveraging health plans by having a public alternative – a more effective way is for employers to use their purchasing power.
Based on recent health and productivity management research on over 400 employers by the Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI), it’s evident that employers understand and recognize the importance of improved workforce wellness and are willing to get on board. In spite of these tough economic times, our research shows that most are increasing the resources they are investing in the health and productivity of their employees – so it’s critical to make sure they are part of the solution.
Tied to this, additional IBI research suggests the dire straits the U.S. work force is in when it comes to health. In a recent analysis of data provided by employees themselves, we found that more than 9 in 10 of these respondents have one or more chronic health problems and many of those workers suffer from an average of three co-morbid groups of chronic health condition (e.g., socio-emotional, metabolic, respiratory). Suffering from multiple, diverse conditions dramatically complicates treatment and management across those conditions and leads to additional lost work time – and this is a survey of workers healthy enough to be employed.
Current legislative activity must only be a first step in real health care reform. True health care reform will be achieved only when the dialogue is broadened from a narrowly-focused, cost-shifting, can’t-win, too-late discourse about trying to control medical treatment costs to a strategic dialogue of how to create economic and personal value from a healthy workforce that leads to a new emphasis on how to nurture and maintain health.
This broader view of health care and the need for health-driven productivity improvements must become a key part of the health care reform solution. If it doesn’t, all the elaborate schemes to balance who pays, who gets covered and how it is funded will do little to enhance the economic strength or health status of the United States. The long-term wealth and prosperity of our nation will be inexorably tied to the health of its workforce.
IBI is a non-profit resource for health and productivity research, measurement and benchmarking. Focused on proving the business value of health, IBI provides benefits performance analysis, practical solutions, and forums for information and education on the impact of health-related productivity on corporate America’s bottom line. Members include Caterpillar, Cisco Systems, USAA and Whirlpool. www.ibiweb.org
Thomas Parry is President of the Integrated Benefits Institute and serves as IBI’s Chief Executive Officer. In addition to directing IBI’s activities, he also is heavily involved in IBI’s research program. Dr. Parry speaks on integrated benefits and health and productivity issues at conferences and symposia in the United States and internationally.
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