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Impact of such wellness programs on the access to care and affordability of coverage for participants and non-participants of such programs
Most employers who offer workplace wellness programs regard them as a viable strategy to contain health care costs. A review of the literature identified randomized controlled trials that found workplace wellness programs did result in significant decreases in healthcare costs, including a savings in medical costs ranging from $11 to $626 per year. The employer survey found that 60 percent of employers offering a wellness program stated that their programs reduced healthcare costs, and around four-fifths reported that they decreased absenteeism and increased productivity. But less than half of the employers reported regularly evaluating their wellness programs and only 2 percent provided actual savings estimates.  Analysis of the CCA database was inconclusive as point estimates suggest that participation in a wellness program may lower healthcare costs and decrease utilization, but differences between participants and non-participants were not statistically significant.

Wellness programs can also provide direct access to care through on-site vaccination activities or health or occupational clinics.  Of those employers offering a wellness program, 76 percent offered on-site vaccinations.  Over 40 percent of employers, regardless of whether they offer a wellness program, reported having an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which provides access to counseling and assistance for personal issues, and over 24 percent an occupational health service. About five percent of employers nationally maintain an on-site clinic.

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National Prevention Council
The Affordable Care Act created the National Prevention Council and called for the development of the National Prevention Strategy to realize the benefits of prevention for all Americans’ health.  The National Prevention Strategy, released in June 2011, focuses on both increasing the length of people’s lives and ensuring that people’s lives are healthy and productive.  The National Prevention Council is comprised of 17 Federal departments, agencies and offices and is chaired by the Surgeon General.  The National Prevention Council Action Plan, released in June 2012, outlines the Council’s commitment to implementing the vision, goal, priorities, and recommendations of the National Prevention Strategy.  It also highlights important opportunities that the National Prevention Council and its 17 member departments – representing sectors such as housing, transportation, education, environment, and defense – are creating to ensure the health, well-being, and resilience of the American people. Example Council department actions to improve worksite wellness from the Action Plan include:

•     Department of Defense is working to reduce tobacco use on its installations to promote health and mission readiness, help tobacco users to abstain/quit, and lead by example for all workplaces.

•     Department of Veterans Affairs will implement a program for safe patient handling, including staff protocols and tools, in all Veterans Health Administration facilities in order to decrease musculoskeletal injuries among employees.

•     Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will implement the DHSTogether program, a department-wide program for employee and organizational resilience designed to promote the health and well-being of the entire DHS workforce and ensure that employees have the tools and resources for balancing work-life issues and thereby reducing sick leave, absenteeism, and stress.

•     Department of Labor will raise awareness among employers, group health plans, and issuers about benefits under the Mental Health Parity Act and Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act through outreach and training to promote mental health and well-being in the workplace.

In addition, The National Prevention Council, through the combined efforts of all its 17 federal departments, has voluntarily committed to identifying opportunities to consider prevention and health, increasing tobacco free environments, and increasing access to healthy, affordable food.  These commitments highlight the National Prevention Council’s efforts to improve workplace wellness and the health of and well-being of all the people they serve.   The National Prevention Council Action Plan can be found here:  http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/initiatives/prevention/2012-npc-action-plan.pdf

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Affordable Care Act included provisions directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to provide technical assistance and evaluation support for employer-based wellness programs and to conduct a National Worksite Health Policies and Programs study.  As an initial step, $10 million from the Affordable Care Act’s Prevention and Public Health Fund was awarded to two organizations with expertise in working with employers to develop and expand workplace wellness activities, such as tobacco-free policies, flextime for physical activity, and healthier food choices in the workplace as well as tools, resources, and guidance to build or enhance workplace health programs. While most workplace wellness studies have focused on large employers, the CDC’s National Healthy Worksite Program is working directly with over 100 small and mid-size employers to develop and provide the tools needed to create a comprehensive health place wellness program, including employer and employee assessments, program planning and implementation support and evaluation. [4]

Quoted from Box A Rox

No Shadow... Rationing in the USA has been the norm for decades.  
Harvard Medical School researchers released a study concluding that 45,000 Americans die
every year because they lack health insurance and access to health care.

Quoted from Box A Rox

No Shadow... Rationing in the USA has been the norm for decades.  
Harvard Medical School researchers released a study concluding that 45,000 Americans die
every year because they lack health insurance and access to health care.

"In this country, we mainly ration on the ability to pay." In fact, because the supply of doctors,
hospitals, and treatments is never unlimited, medical care is rationed in every country, whether
by the government, the private market, or some combination of the two.

Rationing by price, or ability to pay, is familiar to most Americans. Often, this way of allocating
health care means that poor and low-income people cannot get care at all, but it also means
that they might get different kinds of care in a system that treats people differently on the basis
of whether and how much they can pay.

Scientific American (Health Care Rationing Is Nothing New)
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=health-care-rationing-is

Quoted from bumblethru

And how many do we kill off in manipulated, created, political, illegal, unconstitutional wars??
And for the ones that do make it back to the states, that are 'broken'.....GOV ALMIGHTY'S VA is all but absent!!
And yer concerned about a mere 45K??  
Are ya kidding me??

Quoted from CICERO

That's all?  Studies show that over 200,000 americans DIE from medical treatment error.  Being uninsured is statistically safer.

Quoted from Box A Rox

Am I kidding you about what???
I'm not a supporter of US wars, but even if I were, that has nothing to do with health care "rationing"
in America TODAY that was the subject of my response.
And,
For many US Veterans, the VA is their only source of health care services.

Quoted from Box A Rox

Your right Cicero.  So never never never go to the doctor or hospital.  

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Report: Obama administration knew millions would be forced to change insurance
By Mike Krumboltz, Yahoo News 17 hours ago

Before the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010, President Barack Obama promised Americans they could keep their health care plans if they liked them. But already hundreds of thousands of citizens are receiving notification that their plans are being canceled because they don't comply with the new law, and, according to NBC News, the Obama administration has known for at least three years the cancellations were coming.

While campaigning for health care reform in 2009, Obama went out of his way to make one thing perfectly clear: If you like your current health care plan, you will be able to keep it.

On June 15, 2009, Obama said this: "We will keep this promise to the American people. If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period.”

In 2012, he echoed that sentiment, saying, "“If [you] already have health insurance, you will keep your health insurance.”

However, many are finding that not to be the case. More than 300,000 cancellation notices have been sent out in Florida, according to Kaiser Health News, and another 180,000 in California. In New Jersey, the number of cancellations tops 800,000, the Star-Ledger reports.

According to NBC News, approximately 50 to 75 percent of the 14 million Americans who buy their health insurance individually should expect to receive a cancellation letter over the next year "because their existing policies don’t meet the standards mandated by the new health care law."

This could result in millions of Americans being forced to purchase different policies, potentially at higher premiums.


The Affordable Care Act states that people who had health insurance prior to March 23, 2010 — the day Obama signed the bill into law — will be able to keep those policies even if they don't meet the requirements of the new law. However, the Department of Health and Human Services tightened that provision so that "if any part of a policy was significantly changed since that date — the deductible, co-pay or benefits, for example — the policy would not be grandfathered," NBC News reports.


Because the market for individual insurance experiences significant turnover, the insinuation is the Obama administration had to have known many policies "grandfathered" in would not qualify for the Affordable Care Act. NBC News reports that the administration knew in 2010 that "more than 40 to 67 percent of those in the individual market would not be able to keep their plans, even if they liked them."

“This says that when they made the promise [that individuals could keep their plans], they knew half the people in this market outright couldn’t keep what they had and then they wrote the rules so that others couldn’t make it either,” Robert Laszewski of Health Policy and Strategy Associates told NBC News.
http://news.yahoo.com/obama-ad.....eport-222249311.html

Quoted from senders

because they CHOSE to be soldier......

Quoted from bumblethru

We have murdered more men, women and children in unconstitutional wars than any lack of healthcare ever did!! And let us not forget that most folks....even today with the mandate.....REFUSE to fall for this foolish 'preventative' health care  bullcrap. We have talked to many folks who NOW MORE THAN EVER....will skirt healthcare at all cost due to the government invasion of our privacy!!

But hell.....let's keep killing those innocent men, women and children...and toppling governments.... in the name of DEMOCRACY!!!!

Quoted from Box A Rox

One has little to do with the other.

Quoted from Henry

Sure they do it is about power, do you really believe all of our wars were in our best interest.

Quoted from bumblethru

Liars!!! ALL OF THEM!!!