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Legislative Corner: Health Reform Updates
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Where do preventative health measures stand?
A flurry of activity means that several Senate and House committees have been working furiously on health reform bills to try and meet the president's deadline of passing comprehensive health reform before the August recess. If you are curious about where health promotion, workplace wellness and prevention measures stand read on for some updates from Health Promotion Advocates (below).
Overall Timing of Health Reform Legislation
President Obama has been pushing Congress to complete
committee level work on health reform legislation so that Senate and
House level floor votes can be taken before the August 8 recess,
differences between the chambers can be resolved after recess, and a
bill can be delivered for the Presidents signature by October 15.
However, the Finance Committee has not even released its bill, so this
timetable is in doubt.
Senate HELP Committee
The Senate HELP Committee passed its Affordable Health Choices
Act on July 15, 2009. Title III: Improving the Health of the American People in the Act increases the portion of health plan premium tied to health behaviors. The Senate HELP Committee restored provisions that allowed a
portion of the health plan premium to be tied to lifestyle related
factors, increased the amount from 20% to 30% and gave authority to
the Department of Health and Human Services to increase this amount to
50% if research evidence demonstrated that such an increase would
improve health status.
Senate Finance Committee
The Finance Committee had not released its Chairman's mark
of a health reform bill as of July 21, 2009.
House of Representatives Tri-Committee Health Care Reform
Legislation.
The three committees (Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means,
Education and Labor) working together in the House of Representatives
to develop health care reform legislation released their final draft
on July 14. There were no substantial changes to the Title III:
Prevention and Wellness from the version released earlier.
Workplace Wellness Program Grants, Sec 2552. An
amendment was drafted by George Miller, Chairman of the Education and
Labor Committee on July 16 that would provide grants of up to $50,000
to pay for half the cost of comprehensive workplace health promotion
programs. This amendment has not been voted
upon.
Would workplace wellness motivate employees to get active?
Call, or, send a fax to your congressional representative's office asking for his or her support on prevention as an integral part of health reform.
Create a fax to your reps online now! »
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Sucrose? Glucose? Fructose? Whoknose?
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Does a sugar by any other name taste as sweet?
What are YOU spending on Wellness?
- $200 per participant in incentives?
- $40-50 per participant for biometrics screenings?
- $6 per participant for a health risk assessment?
- $4-15 pepm for health coaching?
- $2 pepm for incentive management?
- $200 per on site class?
 - Goodness
knows how much on staff time and consultants and the like on program
administration and measuring of your butt kicking wellness program?
So with all of the expense and effort you put in does it ever worry you that the $.75 peps (yes, that's per employee
per soda) that you spend on providing free pop is corroding the
value of what you have been spending on prevention?
Does a sugar by any other name taste as sweet?
Most
of us forgot the difference between glucose, fructose and sucrose long
ago while starring wistfully at our high school heartthrob during
chemistry. It wasn't something we needed to know and, I mean come on,
who can tell the difference right? All of them taste sugary.
So what's the difference? Well, according to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers from the University of California,
Davis discovered that people consuming fructose-sweetened drinks showed
an increase in a particular kind of fat that embeds itself between
tissues in organs.
They were also less sensitive to insulin, showed
elevated blood levels of lipids, increased fat production in the liver,
and elevated LDL (so-called 'bad' cholesterol) and larger increases in
blood triglycerides. Yikes!
According to the study, those
drinking glucose-sweetened beverages showed none of these changes.
Unfortunately for us, most of the sugars that are readily available in
the store come in the form of high fructose corn syrup or sucrose
(table sugar).
So, uh, skip the soda and maybe provide a fruit bowl instead?
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Taking Care of Yourself is Helpful to Others
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Better self-care is a boon to teams and families.
In their book Work and Family--Allies or Enemies? Jeff Greenhaus and Stewart Friedman explore the tense balance between work and life.
Friedman is practice professor of management at The Wharton School and
is currently on leave to serve as director of the Leadership
Development Center at Ford Motor Co. Greenhaus is professor of
management and the William A. Mackie professor of commerce and
engineering at Drexel University.
Their book is based on a study of 800 business professionals. Their findings hint at some of the trade offs professionals make when it comes to balancing work and life. Among the most important elements in balancing work and life are: autonomy, control over work and the individual's capacity to psychologically process work and life separately. The more the two spheres collide, it seems, the more negative the impact on both.
So what do the authors suggest might optimize the balance and positively impact worker's selves and others (whether those others are children, friends or co-workers)? Self-care. Stew Friendman writes about their findings:
The more time that working mothers spent taking care of themselves,
the better were the emotional and physical health of their children.
Does this apparent paradox surprise you? It shouldn't, for it's just
another bit of proof that if you don't take care of yourself then you
can't really serve those who depend on you. So why is it so difficult
for people to devote the resources needed to take care of themselves?
What do these business brain trust heavy hitters recommend for striking the perfect balance between self-sacrifice for the sake of the team and self-care for the sake of the team?
- Get a full night's rest,
- exercise regularly,
- eat well,
- meditate,
- do
yoga,
- take a walk,
- listen to music,
- or do whatever it is that
rejuvenates and restores you.
Recess Brings Teams Together in Healthy Ways! >>
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