Health premiums are on the rise. This fact is making it more difficult for companies to cover their employees. Many companies are covering only the employee at a subsidized rate. If they offer to cover spouses and families, it is being done at the full rate.

Even the employees are being asked to pay more in premiums than ever before. Because of this, several companies are implementing programs to help employees be more health-conscious. Some are even going as far as trying to force employees to take advantage of them.

Many companies offer memberships to gyms. Sometimes they pay for it in full and other times, they provide memberships at a subsidized rate. Several employees take advantage of the memberships, at least in the short term. It’s going to largely depend on how convenient the gym is both in location and hours of operation.

It’s also going to depend on the motivations of the employees themselves. They’ll be people who become gym rats and use the membership every day. Others may go two or three times a week. Then, they’ll be the rest that will either go on occasion or never set foot in the gym.
It’s a good step for companies to offer this benefit to their employees. Even if only half take advantage of it, that could lead to significant savings due to less medical use by those employees. If they are healthy they won’t go to the doctor as often.

Some companies are offering benefits to help employees overcome addiction and other health issues. This can benefit these companies in the long run as the employees will not be absent as much as when they were under substance abuse. Smokers who quit will no longer be taking smoke breaks. These measures all help to increase productivity while at the same time lower health care costs.

There are employees that feel it’s not fair they have to pay higher premiums for other employees not willing to take better care of themselves. The thinking is their bad habits are helping to drive up the rates. Companies could counteract this by implementing programs that reward people for good checkups, etc.

However, this opens up issues of giving up too much information to the company with regard to employees’ medical histories. Many employees feel that companies already have way more information about them than should be allowed. It’s a difficult situation and one that seems to be constantly evolving.