JUST DON’T HIRE ME IF I AM FAT

The Sun-Times published a front page story on Sunday (as if there were not more important news than this going on in the world!) about how employers are discriminating against employees who are not as physically fit as others. Now the public sector is jumping on the band wagon as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel released a public health agenda for city employees on Tuesday.

The Sun- Times story quoted Dr. Paul Berger, chief medical officer at Aon Hewitt, a human resources and benefits consulting company who said, “Workers who choose not to participate in employee wellness programs or make unhealthy choices are being hit with higher health insurance premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses. Meanwhile, workers who participate in wellness programs are being rewarded with incentives, such as gift cards and contributions to health reimbursement accounts.”

A 2010 Aon Hewitt survey found employers impose or plan to impose penalties for:

(1) Smoking: 64 percent.

(2) Not taking part in disease management/lifestyle behavior programs: 50 percent.

(3) Not participating in biometric screenings: 45 percent.

(4) Not following recommendations to consult health coaches: 25 percent.

(4) Not making biometric improvements, such as lowering their blood pressure or losing enough weight to lower body mass index: 17 percent.

While companies justify such treatment by claiming that unhealthy workers cost more in health insurance and lost productivity, I have a few suggestions of my own for these self-righteous, thin-hugging people.

According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), Hispanic women have the highest incidence rate for cervical cancer. African-American women had the second highest rate of getting cervical cancer, followed by Caucasian, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Asian/Pacific Islander women.  Treating cervical cancer is expensive; better not hire a Hispanic woman!  Add to that the facts that 14% of Hispanics have been diagnosed with diabetes compared with eight percent of Caucasians. They have higher rates of end-stage renal disease, caused by diabetes, and they are 50 percent more likely to die from diabetes as non-Hispanic whites. Hispanic men aren’t looking like healthy hires either.

American Indian and Alaska Native adults are 2.1 times as likely as Caucasian adults to be diagnosed with diabetes. They are almost twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to die from diabetes. In general, this group is 60% more likely to have a stroke than their white adult counterparts and American Indian and Alaska Native women have twice the rate of stroke than Caucasian women.

Should all these various groups have penalties imposed because their ethnic backgrounds can cause them to have more health problems than others?

While I am being sarcastic, I might not be that far from the truth.  A New York Times story reported last February,“One concern voiced by groups like the National Workrights Institute is that such policies are a slippery slope — that if they prove successful in driving down health care costs, employers might be emboldened to crack down on other behavior by their workers, like drinking alcohol, eating fast food and participating in risky hobbies like motorcycle riding. The head of the Cleveland Clinic was both praised and criticized when he mused in an interview two years ago that, were it not illegal, he would expand the hospital policy to refuse employment to obese people.“

It is interesting that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission “protects” people with criminal backgrounds (See Monday’s Blog) yet fat people can just sink on their own.