It was a typical HR letter except that this time it was addressed to both me and my wife. I thought it might be an invitation to an event of some sort. Instead, it was an invite for us to participate in my employer’s wellness program. I’m not part of my employer’s insurance plan, but I wasn’t an accidental recipient: I got this request because several aspects of the wellness program are extended to folks like me and our domestic partners. We’d earn points for healthy activities and routine exams and be eligible for drawings and prizes. And if I signed up, I’d get the added bonus of being endlessly harassed over lifting weights. In the trade, “wellness” has a blunter name: “workforce health management.” There are two options: a surcharge added to your bill if you have a condition deemed unhealthy, or an incentive you can obtain for meeting a goal. The end result on your wallet is the same if you don’t meet the target—you just happen to pay at a different time. Insurance companies and employers love these plans because (in theory) they drive down medical costs. As to why I and others like me get invited, my nice side says it was a well-intentioned effort to aid my pursuit of healthiness, while my cynical side thinks it’s more about enlisting people for reasons of peer-motivation.
RELATED: The Cost of Healthy Eating
I don’t count myself as a big fan of the move toward wellness policies, particularly when your employer is doing the monitoring. I don’t want to worry about things like, “Gee, I wonder if they’ll still think I’m a team player if I don’t take that healthy cooking workshop during lunch.” On a brusque note, I don’t think my health choices are any of my employer’s damn business. When applying for jobs, I always check into the details of benefits as much as I can; it hasn’t happened yet, but I’m pretty sure one day I’ll run into a situation where a potential job’s interest in my HDL levels is a deal breaker. Big Brother worries aside, there’s also the knowledge that I won’t fit neatly into any system’s profile of a “healthy person.” And there’s some truth to that: I could eat better and drop a few pounds. But even if I did, I’d still be in trouble. BMI is a key component of many wellness programs: a 2013 RAND survey identified “nutrition/weight” as a component of 79% of wellness programs, and they all use BMI or a proprietary analog. I’m not big by any stretch, but even if I dropped forty pounds, I’d show up as overweight at a BMI of 25. And unless they let me send in a doctor’s note saying I lift, I’d have to grin and bear whatever the penalty was.
I bet a lot of people reading this would have a similar experience (if they haven’t already.) If you’re a bodybuilder or powerlifter, you almost certainly have a high BMI. You probably also deal with a few of the following:
- Poor blood lipid profile
- Joint issues
- Sleep apnea
- Reflux issues
- High blood pressure
- Obesity
- Acute injuries requiring surgery and/or PT
- Chronic pain
- Elevated heart rate
