Do I even need to comment?

[cassidyrose]

Ew. Just ew. Seriously, this makes fumes come out of my head.

For employees at Clarian Health, feeling the burn of trying to lose weight will take on new meaning.

In late June, the Indianapolis-based hospital system announced that starting in 2009, it will fine employees $10 per paycheck if their body mass index (BMI, a ratio of height to weight that measures body fat) is over 30. If their cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose levels are too high, they'll be charged $5 for each standard they don't meet. Ditto if they smoke: Starting next year, they'll be charged another $5 in each check.

And I love that being fat is the most expensive "offense", not to mention that the dipshits who wrote the article don't even know what the BMI is. Yes, it is a ratio of height to weight but it is in no way, shape or form a measure of one's body fat. It is a useless measure of anything other than someone's ability to calculate a ratio using two numbers.

And let me say this...the day an employer thinks it is their fucking business what my weight, cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose levels or smoking status is, is the day that I no longer work for said employer. Think I'm overreacting? Think again. Once this is allowed you know employers will be looking for ways to charge for "risky" sexual activity (e.g., having sex with men who have sex with men--because who wants to pay for all those pesky Hep B vaccines and STD tests anyhow?), women who are of childbearing age (we only fairly recently got the fuckers to cover birth control on our insurance plans, kind of, let's see how long that lasts) or any number of things which are none of my employer's fucking business. And this "health" information they are collecting? Trust me--it will be used in some way or another to discriminate against certain employees above and beyond just docking their pay each week. I have seen countless illegal and unethical acts executed by all levels of management in my day and giving them more ammunition and allowing them to prod further into our personal lives is NEVER a good thing. Period. End of story.

Comments

[dafydd.livejournal.com]

And let me say this...the day an employer thinks it is their fucking business what my weight, cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose levels or smoking status is, is the day that I no longer work for said employer.

And how does the fact that said employer is paying 50%, or more, of your monthly health insurance premium fit into that? Because you know that's how they justify it.

[lightning-rose.livejournal.com]

Group health insurance premiums are not based on individual health risks.

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

But they are based on the amount the insurance company has had to pay out on that specific group. One of the reasons I got laid off from CBTS was that I was single-handedly driving up the insurance costs because of my claims.

That said, I was working for a company that had less than 100 employees. Clarion is HUGE, given that it covers the IU Med center, Riley Children's hospital, the county hospital, as well as their main campus.

Someone suggested that I see if Clarion is hiring. There's no fricking way I'd even consider it.

[queensheba.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, that's crazy. I can't believe they can do that legally. I would never want to work for a company that was that intrusive into my personal life. And aside from it being an invasion of your privacy overall, BMI is a totally crappy way to assess physical health - it doesn't take body type into account, or muscle mass - you could be a muscle-bound athlete with very low body fat and *still* have a very high BMI. Or you could have a high BMI, be a fairly overweight person, but still have a healthy lifestyle - you might be healthier overall than someone who is very thin, but who has poor nutrition and never exercises.

[krasota.livejournal.com]

o_O

They can pay for a breast reduction, since that's about the only way to lower my BMI with the height/weight ratio. (Well, it will be when I stop drinking half an half to maintain my weight.)

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

I remember speculation that DNA testing would lead to employers refusing to hire people with genetic markers for certain types of diseases. Many people argued that this would never happen, but it seems employers will use any means available to save money.

[dbubley.livejournal.com]

There needs to be political action around this before it becomes widespread. Maybe the President is so concerned with national health he'll want to start monitoring the phone calls of known fat people and their associates (since they are at risk of becoming fat by association); at least the calls made to places that deal with food.

Is this the part of fat acceptance where things get worse before they get better?

[ptor.livejournal.com]

We could be all crafty and Sopranos-like:

"Hey! Peter! Make sure to use that pre-paid cell to call in the Wok City Diner take-out order! And park around the corner when you pick it up!"