Is the Boss Responsible for Your Fat..?

Employee Obesity is costing Employers $45 Billion annually...

Employers are in a bind, with costs of employee healthcare packages seeing 7, 8, 9% year-over-year price increases. Ouch! What's an employer to do?

Scotts/Miracle Gro doesn't want to employ smokers or improper eaters. Neither does the renowned Cleveland Clinic (Dr. Cosgrove, Do NOT back down. You're the voice of reason on this topic. Do not be bullied into submission).

Yet, in Michigan, the obese have become a protected class. Is that fair? Should employers be forced to hire a high risk high cost employee population? Remember, 9 times out of 10, obesity is due to lifestyle choices. Clearly, we already have laws for disability and harassment/bullying. Do the obese deserve special treatment?

And if employees refuse to make minimal efforts to stay out of hospital beds, should coworkers pick up the tab? Will lack of health compliance cause the elimination of employer-based healthcare benefits for us all..??

Talked this up with Brian Sullivan on FOX Business Network Wednesday... Check it out.

Ready to go Twisted Sister..?

Tonight I participated in a Fox Business Network debate about healthcare... Is it or is it not a right..?

Live tv never really affords genuine debate. At least not in the world of news punditry... And try as I might, each appearance results in a failure to complete my thought, correct a false accusation, or make the point I intended to make. That's why it's so addicting..! I'm always certain I'll do better next time... Just gimme another chance...

So no, Healthcare is not a Constitutional right. However, the pursuit of happiness is a fundamental American ideal. It says so right there in the Declaration of Independence. And without health, there is no pursuit of happiness.

Yet we live in a culture that promotes obesity, chronic illness, and skyrocketing healthcare costs... and that's exactly the results we've got. Half of us chronically ill, 80% of our friends taking a prescription med last week, and most of us on our way to overweight or obesity (if we're not there already). Did I forget type 2 diabetes in that list?

Every American deserves easy access to affordable nourishing foods and safe recreational facilities. These are the attributes of a healthy culture and healthy people. Special considerations should be given to at-risk communities. And of course, every child in this country should receive top-notch medical care.

When it comes to us adults, we need to man up/woman up. If we take ultimate accountability for our health, that's the very moment we go Twisted Sister. We're not gonna take it..! If medical costs associated with our lifestyle choices start coming out of our own pockets, we'll be passive no more. We'll demand, DEMAND, that hidden sugars come out of our food, that sodium counts be cut in half, that crazy portion sizes be reduced to Mad Men-era restraint...and all the other hyper-dopamine-inducing formulations, packaging and marketing become above-board and honest. If we're held accountable, we're damn sure gonna hold Big Food and Big Beverage accountable too. It doesn't end there, but that's a start.

When you go back to the basics of health insurance, you land on risk assessment. The statistical risks of the Healthy are meant to offset the risks of the Unhealthy. Obviously risk ultimately equals costs... How is it possible to offset the costs when most Americans are sick? If 8% of us are eating right, exercising daily, not smoking and drinking moderately if at all, then how can we 8% possibly offset the lifestyles of the other 92%? Keep in mind, some in the 8%, even though we're doing just about everything right, will be met with congenital issues, accidents or other circumstances requiring medical attention.

We've all grown weary over the ongoing debate about healthcare. Obama, the House, the Senate...I don't know who will ultimately deliver the go-with plan. At its core is the need to ensure people have health, not necessarily a particular health care plan. It's about keeping each one of us out of the hospital bed.

Dr. Oz Saves Obama's Health-Care Debate

If we all did what Dr. Oz told us to do, we'd be in much better shape.

When it comes to the health-care debate, sure, tort reform is needed, defensive medicine has to stop, unnecessary medical procedures have to stop, corruption and capitalism-without-compassion among insurers have to stop... And what about Big Pharma? Only we and New Zealanders allow pharmaceuticals to be marketed directly to patients. Anything potentially resulting in a 4-hr hard-on is best suggested in a doctor's office, not peddled along with Cheetos and Chips Ahoy (although if you'd put down the junk food, you may well achieve rock-hard status w/out the aid of magic meds. Seriously, once a man goes soft in the middle, he quickly goes, well, soft down below...)

Back to Dr. Oz and healthcare...

With or without a public option, and all the other hotly contested components of health-care reform, our best bet in avoiding hospital-bill-induced bankruptcy is avoiding the hospital bed in the first place. I don't know about you, but my plan is to look great and feel great right up to the moment I drop dead. (Later is better than sooner.) I'm not the least bit interested in entering a purgatory of chronic illness--no thanks. Did you know half of us already suffer chronic illness..? HALF.

And the best way to avoid chronic illness is to follow the Doctor's orders--Dr. Oz's specifically. He and Dr. Michael Roizen of the Cleveland Clinic have authored a must-read series of "You" books that'll keep you as young and healthy as possible. And just today, Dr. Oz premiered his new Oprah / Harpo-produced daily tv show--"The Dr. Oz Show." Check it out.

And do yourself a big favor and follow his directions. Your body will thank you. Your insurance premiums will thank you. Your family and the rest of society (whom you won't be burdening), will thank you..! President Obama and the Congress have a lot to sort out when it comes to health care. But the biggest reform needs to happen with each an every one of us.

Also, go donate over at Dr. Oz's HealthCorps nonprofit. He has young adults talking up healthy living and eating in high schools across the country. Great idea to catch kids before sickness catches them...

Angry Town Hall Meetings- Health-Care Reform- Obesity Bailout

"But I'm a Vegetarian..!"

I hear loads of overweight and obese people say they eat "healthfully" or "exercise" or are "vegetarians..."

But what your mouth says doesn't much matter when your body tells a different story. And your body is a major confessor.

Many people who claim to be **vegetarians, when a better description is "Carbotarian," "Macaroni-n-Cheeseatarian," or "Bag-of-Chips-and-a-Diet Coke-atarian." I worked with with a bright young woman in D.C. years ago. She called herself a vegetarian, but I never saw her eat a vegetable that was green. She was big on corn, pasta and mashed potatoes.

And yep, her body told on her. She was kinda squishy and pasty and frequently under-the-weather.

We're seeing a whole bunch of hoppin' mad Americans shouting down Congressmen and Congresswomen at local Town Hall meetings. Maybe they have a lot to be angry about when it comes to the health-care reform plans on the table: Obama's, the House's or the Senate's.

But I'm sure you've noticed what I've noticed. Most the screamers are also visibly overweight or obese--just like the rest of America. And no, it's unlikely they're suffering from rare medical conditions that promote obesity such as Prader-Willi, Pica or Cushing's Syndrome. 9 times out of 10 it's extra weight as a result of improper eating (eating the wrong foods, too much of the right foods, or a combo of both), and inadequate exercise.

We know the expected fate of most of these folks: chronic disease--very expensive, decades' long, chronic disease.

You'll be paying for it. You already are. It's the unspoken "Obesity Bailout." No matter what becomes of today's raging health-care reform debates, you're already paying higher premiums due to a nation with self-inflicted illness. Employers already pay $45 Billion a year due to employee obesity in lost productivity, extra time off an a higher incidence of workers compensation claims. And as you know, the annual U.S. price tag for obesity is $147 Billion--with a big chunk to cover obesity costs through Medicare and Medicaid.

So as our fellow countrymen shout out at elected government officials during Town Hall Meetings, we are indeed seeing Democracy in Action. We're also witnessing far more than what's being said. Freeze your frame, and take a look at what all these overweight and obese American bodies are telling us.


**(I'm a "mostly-vegetarian," eating chicken about once a week.)