If a story from the Boston Globe is to be believed, then at least one company is on the way to destroying health insurance in America. Lawncare giant, Scott's, apparently has a policy that precludes any employee from smoking -- including off the job. Why are they acting as Big Brother? I can only surmise that they know what smoking does for the health of an employee and they don't want to pay for a smoker's health care, especially as they get older and the problems persist.
I'm not in favor of smoking, but I'm less in favor of legislating a person's private life. If the company is allowed to maintain such draconian policies, the measures will be replicated elsewhere. There's no telling where such actions would stop. Do you eat eggs? Well, you can't anymore because the cholesterol contributes to heart disease. Work somewhere else? It's not our problem no one else will hire you either. If that's Scott's policy, then they should simply not offer health coverage at all. Then, only employees who can afford to self-insure would work there. Competitive disadvantage? Of course, but that's they're bed. If smoking were illegal, that would be a different story. Drinking alcohol is legal, but driving while intoxicated isn't, and if I were to do that and get caught, an employer has a right to be concerned. But I wouldn't want to work for a company that is dictating my legal actions outside of the office.
3 comments:
It's nice to see that Scott's is so concerned about the health of its workers. It's next step should be to trim its full-time work week to 32 hours. After all, the U.S. has the "most-worked" people in the world. We all know that too much work can lead to stress, hypertension, etc., which can lead to health issues and higher healthcare costs.
I'm sure we'll be seeing Scott's institute this policy about as soon as companies bring back employer-funded pensions.
Strictures on people's activities: smoking, eating, drinking, etc. have been considered as ways of controlling health care costs - and lives. Currently, at most companies, non-smokers subsidize smokers healthcare costs since we pay on a pooled cost(average) basis. You're right, the trend heads toward control of all our lives. How to arrest this trend? Probably only thorough legislation.
Not a very hopeful prognosis you offer. In this age of attacking and removing civil liberties (and I don't expect Democrats to put the cap on that genie's bottle now that the Republicans have opened it in the name of fighting terrorism), I honestly fear that America has turned a corner and forgotten to leave any breadcrumbs to get us back to normalcy. Perhaps the world has become so warped that there's no normalcy any more, but I remain an idealist.
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