Healthy Employees For A Healthy Bottom Line

With the ever-mounting cost of health care being a $2.5 trillion national obsession a year, it’s no surprise that companies are looking for ways to have healthy employees.

Since 2001, family health-care premiums have risen by 113 percent, compared with just 27 percent for inflation overall. Employer-sponsored family health insurance premiums have jumped by 9 percent this year, bringing the annual cost to more than $15,000 for a family of four, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. That’s significantly higher than the general inflation rate of 3.2 percent. Such hyperinflation in health-care costs is putting downward pressure on wages and new hiring, and it’s applying the brakes to our economic recovery.

What causes these ever increasing health costs?

A major and growing stumbling block is an epidemic of obesity, which can lead to other long-term health problems like diabetes and heart troubles. Americans have the world’s highest rates of obesity, a vexing problem that contributes to our relatively high rates of chronic disease and disability. The direct cost of obesity to United States corporations is estimated to be a whopping $13 billion per year.

Overweight and obese employees lead to higher health care utilization rates, lowered productivity, increased absenteeism, elevated health and disability insurance premiums and other financial consequences that affect each employer’s bottom line. Even setting aside direct medical expenses, a new Gallup study estimates that preventable chronic conditions cost the U.S. $153 billion in lost productivity every year.

What can employers do about obesity?

Corporate Profit

As companies feel the financial burden of this obesity epidemic, some are trying to help their bottom line by helping employees with their waistline. For example, Dow Chemicals knows that their lost productivity increases their health care costs by 8 percent to 10 percent a year. They found out that if they succeeded in keeping their spending at the lower end of that inflation rate, they would be saving tens of millions of dollars per year.

Among the 62% of big companies offering wellness incentives, the dollar amount has risen to $430 per employee from $260 five years ago. But the payoff is real: J&J says wellness efforts have saved the company $250 million in health care costs over the past decade. From 2002 to 2008, that worked out to a return of $2.71 for every dollar spent.

Prevention is the solution

Impressed by the advances in modern medicine, we have accepted the false notion that we can spend more and more on better medicine instead of focusing on what creates these illnesses in the first place: bad diets and lifestyles.

Until recently, most people’s attitude has been: “As long as my insurance pays for it, I’ll be fine.” This kind of thinking is what has brought us to where we are now: unhealthy employees taxing your company’s finances and a healthcare system that is taxing this country’s economy.

According to the National Business Group on Health in Washington, D.C., studies have shown that for every $1 a company puts into corporate wellness programs, $3 are saved through decreased sick days, increased worker productivity and employee retention.

I believe that since roughly half of health care costs are stemming from lifestyle choices, when we learn to improve our lifestyle, we have a greater chance to lower overall health care costs for your employees and your company.

Healthy food does not have to be expensive

There is a costly misconception in the general public that it costs more money to eat healthy. It is not necessarily true, and it pushes us into a spiral of malnutrition. I have proven this concept wrong in my newest book: Healthy French Cuisine for Less Than $10/Day.

I can apply these same cost-saving techniques to a healthy eating plan designed for your company.

Most Americans are aware that the way they eat affects their health but they don’t know how to go about changing their diet.

Healthy Employees

My first goal is education. Most people, unless they are facing food allergies or debilitating digestive issues, are not payingmuch attention to what they eat. They hear about excess calories, fats and salt but they don’t know how to apply it in their daily life.

A comprehensive preventive program designed for sustained weight loss and improved lifestyle behaviors should offer a combination of a nutrition and fitness program. One will not work without the other. It does not matter if you work out everyday to loose those extra calories if you don’t do anything about avoiding them in the first place.

The best thing any company can do to lower their insurance costs is to help their employees by offering such a program.

I can help your company create seasonal healthy cafeteria dishes made with healthy and local ingredients, all at a reasonable cost. My motto is that healthy food can also be tasty food.

I also offer private consultations to help your employees with their particular health issues (food allergies, gluten and dairy allergies, diabetes, etc.) and create a healthy customized diet based on their particular needs. If some of your important employees face some of these health issues, you could help them by offering to pay for part of this personal plan.

For information about my personal brand of healthy eating, please check any of my three books: How to Lower your Cholesterol with French Gourmet Food; Living Gluten and Dairy-Free with French Gourmet Food and my latest one: Health French Cuisine for Less Than $10/Day. All of them are available at Amazon.com by clicking on the links on this website.

Sincerely,

Chef Alain Braux

For further questions, or to set up a free initial consultation, please contact me here!