Healthy Bytes

The Twinkie tax

read time: 158 words, just a minute

With health insurance premiums spiraling up (7.7% in 2006), companies who don’t or can’t absorb the cost are choosing one of two options.

Option one – cut the coverage and/or shift some of the cost to the employee.
Option two – take a decidedly active role in persuading employees to make healthier choices.

Some companies have hired dieticians, wellness program managers and health directors. They’re sponsoring exercise programs and nutrition education.

Some companies are applying a “Twinkie tax” – increasing the cost of not healthy food in their cafeteria and using the extra money to subsidize and lower the cost of healthy food. L.L. Bean hiked the price of burgers and lowered the price of salads. Burger and fry sales were cut in half, fruit and salad bar sales doubled.

A healthier employee means less productivity loss due to sickness and (presumably) lower health care costs eventually. An easy to understand investment for the company.

What would you invest for yourself?

This entry was posted on Wed, 13.Dec.2006 at 7:22 pm and is filed under Nutrition, Eating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.