Workplace Health Fascism: Its Cause and Solution

The Health Fascists' Secret Policy Meetings

Under the auspices of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-MA, "Since last fall, many of the leading figures in the nation’s long-running health care debate have been meeting secretly in a Senate hearing room. The 20 people who regularly attend the meetings on Capitol Hill include lobbyists for AARP, Aetna, the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the American Cancer Society, the American Medical Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans, the Business Roundtable, Easter Seals, the National Federation of Independent Business, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, and the United States Chamber of Commerce." The goal of most of the participants is to force Americans to have health insurance; and by this device, to impose absolute tyranny over our personal lives. "While President Obama is not directly represented in the talks, the White House has been kept informed and is encouraging the Senate effort as a way to get the ball rolling on health legislation." [However, RWJF lobbyist William V. Corr and RWJF board member Nancy Anne deParle have been members of the Obama transition team.] "The proposal for an individual mandate was one of the few policy disagreements between Mr. Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton in their fight for the Democratic presidential nomination. She wanted to require everyone to have and maintain insurance. He said he wanted to 'ensure affordable coverage for all,' but would initially apply the mandate only to children." (Health Care Industry in Talks to Shape Policy. By Robert Pear. New York Times, Feb. 20, 2009.)

The Business Roundtable

The Business Roundtable is self-described as "an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with $4.5 trillion in annual revenues and nearly 10 million employees. Member companies comprise nearly a third of the total value of the U.S. stock markets and represent over 40 percent of all corporate income taxes paid to the federal government." Its chairman, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg, says they insure nearly 35 million Americans. This Nazi advocates "Placing an Obligation on All Americans to Obtain Health Insurance, either through their employer or the private market. Americans would also be encouraged to participate in employer or community-based prevention and chronic care programs." (Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg Outlines Business Case for Health Care Reform Now. Testimony to Senate Finance Committee Centers on How Health Care Reform Must be a Part of the Economic Recovery Plan, Nov. 19, 2008.)

They are a militant health fascist cabal whose members aggressively meddle in their employees' lives. They include CIGNA, MetLife, Dow Chemical Company, Union Pacific Corporation, Schering-Plough Corporation, Humana Inc., Texas Instruments, Corning, IBM, Verizon Communications; Northwestern Mutual, American Electric Power Company, Inc., Office Depot, Case New Holland, Eastman Chemical Company, CSX Corporation, General Motors Corporation, Aetna, Caterpillar Inc., Owens Corning Inc., FedEx, Western & Southern Financial Group, Principal Financial Group, The Boeing Company, DuPont, Merrill Lynch, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Sun Microsystems, SAS Institute Inc., Accenture, Navistar, Xerox Corporation, Abbott Laboratories, General Mills, Inc., Prudential Financial, W.W. Grainger, Inc., ExxonMobil Corporation, Owens Corning, Pactiv Corporation, McKesson Corporation, and Sprint Nextel. "Of the Business Roundtable member companies that responded to the Wellness Survey, almost 40 percent spend more than $200,000 annually on their programs, and 20 percent spend at least $1 million." (Doing Well through Wellness. 2006-07 Survey of Wellness Programs at Business Roundtable Member Companies.)

They are doubletalking snakes. Out one side of their mouths, they accuse uninsured people of being an financial burden on those who are insured. But this is a lie, because the tax breaks those insured people receive are costing the federal government $188.5 billion in forgone federal revenue, see below. Meanwhile, the uninsured pay their own health expenses, for which they receive no tax favors or price discounts such as insurance companies negotiate for themselves, while paying higher taxes to make up for the lost tax revenue. Then out the other side of their mouths, they arrogantly proclaim that the uninsured supposedly have an "obligation" (based upon WHAT claim?) to participate in their health insurance rackets, in the name of lowering the costs to the participants.

They just want to rope everybody into their totalitarian scheme for absolute tyranny over our lives. They say, "We believe that every individual has two responsibilities: to participate in a wellness, prevention or chronic care program and to have health insurance coverage that, at a minimum, offers catastrophic benefits." (Health Care Costs in America: A Call to Action for Covering the Uninsured. Business Roundtable Principles for Reform, Health & Retirement Task Force, June 2007, p. 9.)

The real equitable solution is to end the tax write-offs that corporations receive for railroading their employees into group health insurance schemes, and treat employer paid health care as income. Let these big corporations compete on a level playing with smaller companies that don't offer insurance. And, anti-health fascist consumers must have a real voice in any government-funded health care, whether it applies to the entire population or only some segments of it.

Health Fascist Parasites on the Attack!

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-IA, and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Or, introduced S. 1753, the Healthy Workforce Act of 2007, which would amend the Internal Revenue Code to allow employers a 50% tax credit for the costs of providing employees with a so-called qualified wellness program, as certified by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. It specifies that "The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall not certify a program as a qualified wellness program unless the program--`(i) is consistent with evidence-based research and best practices, as identified by persons with expertise in employer health promotion and wellness programs" - which means that it would be approved by the same old rotten little clique of politically-connected charlatans, who systematically exclude any evidence which conflicts with their totalitarian political agenda! And, Harkin is Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations, which means that he can blackmail scientists into silence with the implicit threat of cutting off their funding!

Specifically, this nest of vermin, the "Community Preventive Services" at the Centers for Disease Control, would be running the show. For their lie that "Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States," they are still relying upon the fraudulent and grossly obsolete claims of McGinnis and Foege, Actual causes of death in the United States. JAMA 1993;270:2207–2212. It it is over fifteen years old, and it considers absolutely none of the new knowledge that infections are really to blame for numerous diseases that those corrupt frauds blame on smoking. This is a direct and obvious proof of how politically-nurtured and isolated from real science these charlatans are! For their Hitler Big Lie that "tobacco
use is responsible for 430,000 deaths per year among adults, and direct medical costs are in the range of $50–$73 billion per year," they use the CDC's fraudulent SAMMEC computer program, which also falsely blames smoking for diseases caused by infection, and pretends that costs paid by smokers were paid by non-smokers, and that non-smokers' costs don't exist at all! For their defamation that "Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is a recognized cause of heart disease and accounts for an estimated 3000 lung cancer deaths per year among adults," they cite the infamous U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report, Respiratory health effects of passive smoking: lung cancer and other disorders. This report is flagrantly unscientific on its face, because it completely ignores carcinogenic viruses, which are implicated in over ten times more cases of lung cancer than they pretend are caused by ETS. Furthermore, this despicable report wasn't even written by EPA scientists, who were against calling ETS a human carcinogen. The key chapters were written by handpicked anti-smoking activists, one of whom publicly confessed. They used illegal pass-through contracts to conceal their role, and on the board of directors of the crooked EPA contractor sat a close crony of George H.W. Bush, at the end of whose regime the report was released, and of George W. Bush, as well as a big shot Democrat, to ensure a bipartisan coverup. Furthermore, the report didn't even consider heart disease, a point which has never disturbed the lying anti-smoker filth! For its lie that exposure to ETS causes asthma, it relies upon the fraudulent report of the 1997 California Environmental Protection Agency, Health effects of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, which ignores the fact that the steep rise in asthma deaths from 1978 to 1996, flagrantly contradicts their pretense that secondhand smoke is to blame for any significant portion - they merely use their habitual trick of exploiting the socioeconomic disadvantages that result in more exposure to the real cause(s) among smokers and passive smokers, to falsely blame tobacco. Not even the author of the US EPA's report believes in the garbage that he wrote any more! And, after pronouncing this pile of filthy Big Lies, the rest of the report is an exposition of their political goals. Predictably, the filth want to raise cigarette taxes, spew lies and defamations in the mass media, and engineer smoking bans.

Rep. Thomas Udall, D-NM, and Mary Bono, D-CA, introduced it in the House of Representatives. (September 6, 2007: Udall Introduces Healthy Workforce Act.). "Representative Mark Udall (D-CO) and Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) are Tom's cousins and current members of Congress." (Thomas Udall Biography, House of Representatives, accessed 10/7/07.) Attorney General Thomas Udall's demagogic gibbering about secondhand smoke in fast food restaurants: "Let's compare it for a minute with drunk driving. We're talking about t:housands of people being killed in those circumstances. When you're talking about deaths as a result of passive smoke you're talking about 44,000 people a year dying as a result o:f passive smoke." (Fast Food Restaurant Smoking Ban. All Things Considered, National Public Radio. WNYC, New York, Jan. 24, 1994.) Udall panders to the bloodsucking filth who financially profit from persecuting smokers! He was one of the pieces of scum who joined the Minnesota state lawsuit against the tobacco companies, that looted smokers of $368.5 billion based upon scientific fraud! (Union Health Funds Laud Attorney General Udall's Stand Opposing Lawsuit Immunity for Big Tobacco. Press Release, Coalition for Worker's Health Care Funds, Mar. 17, 1998.)

Prominent supporters of this legislation include peddlars of health fascist workplace programs, who hope to benefit financially from this government distortion of the free market, such as the Health Fitness Corporation. (Health Fitness Corporation: Healthy Workforce Act Would Pave Way to Build Healthier Workforce, Reduce Health Care Costs. Press Release, Jul. 12, 2007.) Health Fitness Corporation acquired the Health & Fitness Services Division of the notorious Johnson & Johnson Company in 2003. Big clients of J&J Health & Fitness included IBM, General Electric and General Motors [J.P. Morgan companies]. Health Fitness Corporation's vice president, Katherine Meacham Hamlin, spent 15 years at J&J Health & Fitness Services Division, and was a vice president there. Its vice president of operations, Brian Gagne, was "director of integrated behavioral solutions at Johnson & Johnson. Peter Egan, its chief "science officer," is former head of the wellness crap at Sandia National Laboratories [U.S. Dept. of Energy nuclear programs, long dominated by General Electric]. Its president, Gregg Lehman, is a former president and CEO of the National Business Coalition on Health. Its clients include Texas Instruments, Hewlett Packard and Compaq. (Senior Management Team. Health Fitness Corporation, accessed 10/7/07.)

Anti-smoker corporations use health costs as a pretext for oppression

The Scott-MiracleGro Corporation threatens to fire smokers, under the pretexts that their health costs are higher - WHILE IGNORING THE ULTIMATELY HIGHER HEALTH COSTS OF NON-SMOKERS - which they plan to pawn off on society through Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. "Scotts took dramatic action because it wants to hold down health-insurance costs by 'helping people live healthy lifestyles,' said James Hagedorn, chairman and chief executive. The Marysville company pays for medical claims using its own funds, 'so why would we admit someone into this environment when they’re passing risk along to everyone else?' he asked. "Our view is we shouldn’t and we won’t." [As if they don't get a corporate tax subsidy for employer-provided health insurance! Plus there is a large personal income tax and payroll tax exclusion that workers receive on the value of those benefits, which under their scheme would go only to non-smokers.] "The Society for Human Resource Management found in a 2004 survey that 4.4 percent of those polled preferred to not hire smokers. Less than 1 percent of the 270 professionals surveyed said their companies have a formal policy against hiring smokers." (Your smokes or your job. In less than a year, Scotts Miracle-Gro plans to start firing employees who light up — even at home. By Monique Curet and Ken Stammen. The Columbus Dispatch, December 09, 2005.) Lynn J. Beasley, President and Chief Operating Officer of RJ Reynolds Tobacco, is on their board of directors - proving again that the anti-smokers control the tobacco companies.

Retirement Costs Are More Important to Employers

A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Hewitt Associates found that "firms providing retiree health benefits experienced cost increases averaging 12.7 percent in 2004, with employers and retirees sharing these cost increases at most firms. The survey also found that a typical worker under age 65 who retired in 2004 would pay $2,244 annually in premiums ($4,644 with spousal coverage) – 27 percent more than a similar worker who retired in 2003. A typical Medicare-eligible worker who retired in 2004 would pay $1,212 annually in premiums ($2,508 with spousal coverage) – 24 percent more than in 2003." 8 percent of employers surveyed said that, in 2004, they had eliminated subsidized health benefits for future retirees. For 2005, 1 percent said they are likely to terminate subsidized coverage for current retirees, but 11 percent said they are likely to terminate coverage for future retirees, mainly among new hires... Nearly three out of four surveyed employers (72 percent) said they are likely to provide age 65+ retirees with educational materials about the Medicare drug benefit." (Kaiser Family Foundation News Release, Dec. 14, 2004.)

White Collar Workers Cost More Than Blue Collar Workers

Employers spend $42.09 on management and professionals versus $20.82 on production, transportation and material moving workers, and $12.07 on service workers - despite the fact that white collar workers have supposedly "healthier" lifestyles than blue-collar workers. (Table 128. Employers' costs per employee-hour worked for total compensation, wages and salaries, and health insurance, according to selected characteristics: United States, selected years 1991-2005 [Data are based on surveys of employers] In: Health, United States, 2005.)

Workplace "Wellness Programs"

The Washington Business Group on Health

Willis B. Goldbeck

"Mr. Goldbeck is President and CEO of The Health Project, a White House initiated, non-partisan, not-for-profit organization promoting investments in cost effective and innovative prevention, public, and environmental health programs. The Health Project is the host of the National Health Awards. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Alternative Futures. In 1991 Mr. Goldbeck was selected by the World Health Organization and the European Union to develop and manage a trans-European telecommunications system serving all EU health related national administrations. From 1988 - 1995, Mr. Goldbeck was a consultant to the European Regional Office of the UN's World Health Organization where he was responsible for establishing the Office of Resource Mobilisation. He managed the preparation of EUROHEALTH: providing guidelines for special assistance to the health administrations in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Mr. Goldbeck was Founder and President of the Washington Business Group on Health, which included the creation of Business & Health Magazine, the National Association of Health Data Organizations, many of the regional, state and local coalitions, and a series of research institutes on Worksite Wellness, Aging, Health & Work, Rehabilitation & Disability Management, and Mental Health. In addition, Mr. Goldbeck was appointed Special Assistant for Research and Technology for the USD HUD, official representative of the US House of Representatives’ Banking and Currency Committee to the UN Conference on Human Settlements, consultant to the Executive Director of President Carter’s White House Conference on Balanced National Growth and Economic Development, and consultant to the 1981 White House Conference on Aging. Prior to entering the public policy arena, Goldbeck was a correspondent for TIME Magazine & The Amsterdam News, a football and basketball coach, teacher of political science and designer of experimental curricula in New York City. Consulting clients include several US and European based pharmaceutical companies; the EU’s Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, WHO, and public and private health care organizations." (Willis Goldbeck bio. The Emerging Technologies and Healthcare Innovations Congress (TETHIC)."

Goldbeck was a member of Steering Committee of The InterStudy Group for the National Chamber Foundation project, "How Business Can Promote Good Health for Employees and Their Families," 1978. Interstudy was founded by Dr. Paul M. Ellwood, "a pediatric neurologist from Minnesota who is widely considered a father of health maintenance organizations," and Alain C. Enthoven, of Stanford University, a former economist with the Rand Corporation and an assistant Secretary of Defense under President Johnson. Ellwood, Enthoven and the WBGH were later ringleaders of the Jackson Hole Group behind Hillary Clinton's healthcare plan of the 1990s.

Goldbeck and Ann Kiefhaber of the WBGH participated in Promoting Health/Preventing Disease: Objectives For The Nation (1980), under Surgeon General Julius Richmond.

Willis Goldbeck, Ann Kiefhaber, and Leon J. Warshaw of the Washington Business Group on Health participated in Work Group 4, "Smoking Control in the Workplace," of the National Conference on Smoking OR Health, Developing a Blueprint for Action, Nov. 18-20, 1981. Other participants included Group Leader Robert Beck, Director of Personnel Benefits and Services of IBM Corp.; Lloyd C. Arnold, director of the Johnson & Johnson Company's Live for Life, and James E. Burke, Chairman of the Board of J&J; Andrew Brennan and Robert Johansen of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; Gilbert H. Collings Jr. and Loring Wood of the New York Telephone Company (NYNEX); Michael J. Cowell of the State Mutual Life Assurance of America; James L. Craig of General Mills, Inc.; Irvine H. Dearnley and Christopher C. York, Vice Presidents of Citibank; Thomas F. Duzak of United Steelworkers of America; William A. Fishbeck of Dow Chemical Company; Walter J. Hatcher of Pitney Bowes Inc.; Marvin M. Kristein of the American Health Foundation; Stanley M. Little of the Boeing Co.; Murray P. Naditch of Control Data Corporation; Jan Peter Ozga of the US Chamber of Commerce; Rebecca S. Parkinson, Staff Manager - Employee Health Education of AT&T; and A. Judson Wells, Special Assistant of the American Lung Association and later ghost author (concealed behind illegal pass-through contracts) of the EPA ETS report.

Kiefhaber and Goldbeck wrote the work group's companion paper, Smoking: A Challenge to Worksite Health Management. It included the following lies: "Fact: It is acceptable to ban any employee behavior that is known to be unsafe to either that worker or fellow workers. Smoking is clearly such an activity." (p. 4); "[O]ne unmistakeable conclusion: reducing, much less stopping, smoking is virtually guaranteed to produce a very welcome return on investment." (p. 6); "The recent studies on the health effects of involuntary smoking or breathing air contaminated with exhaled smoke have put increased pressure on employers to establish smoking restrictions or bans." (p. 16) [sic - this was in 1981, when the literature consisted of a mere three ETS studies by anti-smoking activists Lawrence Garfinkel, Takeshi Hirayama, and Dimitrios Trichopoulos! - which clearly demonstrates a preordained agenda.] They gushed over the quit-smoking programs at New York Telephone, IBM, Campbell Soup, Dow Chemical, and Speedcall Corporation.

Goldbeck promoted employee wellness programs in Managing Health Costs Strategies for Coalitions and Business, US Chamber of Commerce, 1982, p. 22. TRW was one of the companies that imposed one.

Goldbeck was the editor of Business & Health magazine.

Goldbeck's father, Cecil Hamilton Goldbeck, Dartmouth 1922, was a vice president and secretary of Coward-McCann, Inc. book publishers. (Cecil Goldbeck. New York Times, Jul. 3, 1958.) His uncle, Willis Goldbeck, was a Hollywood producer. (Willis Goldbeck, 80, Was Movie Producer, Director and Writer. By Richard F. Shepard. New York Times, Sep. 19, 1979.) His aunt's second husband was Thomas R. Coward, the president of Coward-McCann. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Yale University Alumni Club and a member and former president of the Yale Club of New York. Her attendant was Coward's sister, Mrs. John H. Mallon (Skull & Bones 1919). (Mrs. E.G. Badger Wed to Publisher. New York Times, Oct. 2, 1943.)

The National Association of Manufacturers has been in cahoots with the Washington Business Group on Health since at least 1984. (Health Agenda 1984-85: Public & Private Stratgies; WBGH and NAM Present Their Sixth Annual Conference, Health Agenda 1990; Health Agenda 1992 Eighth Annual Conference; Health Agenda 1993.)

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funds workplace health fascism

Addressing clean indoor air regulations and government change promoting local environments favoring physical activity in five West Virginia counties. $296,541, Jul 1, 2008 to Dec 31, 2009, ID# 64492; to the Wellness Council of West Virginia, Patty M. Deutsch M.S.W., M.A., and Sharon M. Covert, Project Directors.

The Wellness Councils of America

Former CDC Director (1977-1983) William H. Foege was credited with expanding the Centers for Disease Control into the area of "prevention." Meanwhile, "In a private-sector action, the Health Insurance Asssociation of America and the American Council of Life Insurance (ACLI) announced on January 19 that they were encouraging the nation's life and health insurance companies to 'begin concentrated efforts to promote smoking cessation and prevention at the worksite.' The action followed a report on 'the dangers of cigarette smoking and the need for worksite cessation programs' that was written by Dr. Charles Berry, former chief medical director of the U.S. space program, and Dr.Jonathan Fielding, director of the University of California at Los Angeles Center for Health Enhancement. Schweiker became president of the ACLI February 4." (Health Policy Report. By John K. Iglehart. New Engl J Medicine 1983 Mar 10;308(10):604-608.)

In 1984, the Health Insurance Association of America gave the Wellness Council of the Midlands a $450,000 grant to establish a nationwide network of "Wellness Councils." Founded by William Kizer, the chairman of Central States Indemnity, a credit-card insurance company formerly owned by Central States Life and Health Company of Omaha. The reinsurer of Central States from the beginning was Warren E. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. (Berkshire Hathaway Buys Central States Indemnity. New York Times, Oct. 21, 1992.) Mutual of Omaha, Coors Brewing Company, Quaker Oats, American Express, and Home Box Office have been among their their big clients. (Instilling the Workout Ethic at Work. By Michel Marriott. New York Times, Mar. 20, 1996.)

"Omaha boasts the creation of the Wellness Council of the Midlands (WELCOM) from which the Wellness Councils of America (WELCOA) has evolved. WELCOM began in 1982 with fifty- three member companies, and presently has 135 companies reaching more than 70,000 employees. The Wellness Council exists to promote wellness at the worksite. WELCOM gains the active support of the chief executive officers in the business community for health promotion at the worksite. They also provide health information and related resources to businesses, and act as an advisory body to businesses regarding worksite wellness endeavors. Many of WELCOM's activities are aimed at reducing chronic disease risk factors." (American Cancer Society, Nebraska Division application to NCI ASSIST program, Sep. 13, 1990.) The Wellness Council of America was also involved in the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation's Project LEAN. Its president was H. Cranston Lawton, formerly of Aetna Life Insurance; Vice President, John E. Pearson, chairman and CEO of Northwestern National Life Insurance Co.; Secretary, Frank H. Barker, Corporate Vice President of Johnson & Johnson; Directors: Glendon E. Johnson, President & CEO of John Alden Life Insurance Co.; Charles A. Barry, president of Preventive & Aerospace Medicine Consultants; Robert J. Blendon, Professor and Chairman, Health Policy and Management, Harvard University; Philip Briggs, vice chairman of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.; Elina Buchwald, vice chairman of Burson-Marsteller; Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.; Gen. John T. Chain Jr., Commander in Chief of the Strategic Air Command [who has been a director of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco since 1994]; William Farley, chairman of Farley Industries; Dorothea H. Johnson, Corporate VP- Health Affairs, AT&T; John Kenefick, former chairman of the Union Pacific Railroad; Carl J. Schramm, president of the Health Insurance Association of America; Bert Seidman, Director, Department of Occupational Safety, Health and Social Security, AFL-CIO; and TV doctor Arthur Ulene, M.D. (Wellness Councils of America application to Nebraska Department of Health, Aug. 13, 1990.)

A translation of the health fascists' Orwellian doublespeak into plain English

"Just a generation ago, the role of the patient was clear and uncomplicated. Today, the patient has responsibilities and opportunities unparalleled in history." Translation - just a generation ago, we had a degree of autonomy and control over our health care and our personal lives. Today, thanks to the health fascists and their group health insurance schemes, we have been reduced to the status of little children who must be forced to obey their nannies. This infantilization is what the bloodsuckers call, "empowerment."

"There was a time when organized labor was skeptical of health promotion programs. Now it is not uncommon for unions to negotiate for better health promotion benefits at the bargaining table." Translation: The unions have been taken over by health fascist vermin, and they are our enemies. We should spit out their propaganda that health insurance is a benefit, and see it for what it is: a benefit for the health fascists to help them destroy our freedom and shove quackery down our throats. Furthermore, we should demand an end to the tax write-offs that corporations receive for railroading their employees into group health insurance schemes, and treat employer paid health care as income.

Insurance Companies Blackmail Employers

"The firm's Charleston office embraced the wellness program last year. LaCagnin said 95 percent of the Charleston staff participated in the health-risk appraisal. Asked how Charleston achieved such a high participation rate, he said, "They basically said, 'Look, you don't have to do this, but we want you to do this and if you do it, you'll get a better rate on your health insurance premiums.'" (Finding a Path to Wellness. By George Hohmann. Charleston Daily Mail.)

Employers Blackmail Employees

"As an incentive to improve their health, King County offered its employees and their covered spouses or domestic partners lower out of pocket expenses for participating in wellness activities including an annual health risk assessment and an action plan tailored to the results of the assessment.... As an example of the differences in the lout of pocket levels, the per person annual deductible for the gold level is $100, Silver is $300 and for bronze it is $500.... Employees are not penalized with higher out of pocket expenses for having a chronic condition, smoking or being overweight. They are rewarded with lower out of pocket expenses for trying to maintain good health or improve health risk factors." (Media advisory: King County’s innovative wellness initiative boosting health of employees. King County Executive Ron Sims, news release, Oct. 17, 2006.) The mealy-mouthed double-talking bloodsucker!

"Some employers charge at-risk workers more for health coverage, as Clarian proposed. Tribune Co., which owns this newspaper, charges smokers "medical fees" of $100 per month and refers them to a free smoking-cessation program." [NOTE: Nobody would be forced to pay $100 a month in bogus "medical fees" if they boycotted the insurance plan!] "Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman said, 'Our position is, the smoking fee is within the law and within our rights as an employer.' Employees who complete the free smoking-cessation program no longer pay the fee, he said. Those who complete the program and succeed in quitting have the fees they paid refunded. [While the bloodsucking filth get to keep the interest on the money they appropriated.] He said the program's goals are to help employees develop better health habits, control medical costs and reduce the inequities to nonsmokers, who he said end up paying some of smokers' medical costs by virtue of being in the same plan." (Employers experiment with tough get-healthy regimes. By Barbara Rose. Chicago Tribune, Feb. 10, 2008.) The program's goal is to pawn off non-smokers' old-age costs on smokers who pay for but don't receive them!

The $246 Billion Tax Subsidy for the Insurance Industry Gives Them Their Advantage

"Today, the tax code creates a significant tax advan­tage for those with employer-sponsored coverage by exempting the total value of the benefit from a worker’s taxable income. This distorts the health insurance market by favoring coverage obtained through the place of work and stifles the advance­ment of other coverage options. The Advisory Panel’s report brings attention to this distortion by suggest­ing a cap on the current, unlimited tax break found in employer-sponsored coverage.... Ideally, the current employer exclusion should be replaced with a system of universal, individual health care tax credits. Such a system would: End the dramatic government discrimination against individuals who do not or cannot get health insurance at the place of work;... Individual health care tax credits are the best single approach to accomplishing these worthy objectives. To offer health care tax credits to employers, who already receive a tax break for offering health insurance as a cost of doing business, would be to miss the point of this reform. Offering health care tax credits to employers would simply perpetuate the restriction of personal health care choice and the lack of portability in health care coverage, as well as undermine the free-market competition that would otherwise obtain in a robust con­sumer-driven market.... The current federal tax code offers a variety of tax preferences relating to health care. In 2004, these tax benefits—which include employer health care bene­fits for workers and retirees, deductions of health care premiums for the self-employed, health expen­ditures through flexible spending accounts, and tax deductions for allowable health expenditures— accounted for $188.5 billion in forgone federal rev­enue. Of that amount, $122.2 billion was associ­ated with personal income tax exclusions. By far the largest portion of the personal income tax exclusion ($101 billion) [53.6%] went to the employer exclusion for employee health care benefits [emphasis added]. The current employer tax exclusion allows the value of the worker’s health care benefit to be excluded from the worker’s taxable income. In addition, the exclu­sion is unlimited. This means that there is no cap on the dollar amount; thus, the more generous the health benefit, the greater the amount that is exempt from taxation.... The employer-based tax exclusion for health insurance gives preferential tax advantages only to those individuals who obtain their health care through the place of work. About 60 percent of Americans get their coverage through an employer. However, workers without employer-based coverage do not receive the same tax benefit under the federal tax code and must use after-tax dollars to pay for their health care coverage, as well as any out-of-pocket health care expenses. Furthermore, the exclusion benefits higher-income workers, who have a higher marginal tax rate, more than it benefits lower-income workers, who owe less. As noted by health care economists John Sheils and Randall Haught of the Lewin Group, the estimated average tax benefit in 2004 amounted to $2,780 for families with incomes of $100,000 or more but only $102 for families mak­ing less than $10,000 per year." (Health Care Tax Credits: Designing an Alternative to Employer-Based Coverage. By Nina Owcharenko. Backgrounder #1895, The Heritage Foundation, Nov. 8, 2005.)

"Exclusion Is Nation’s Costliest Tax Subsidy"

"The exclusion of employer-provided health insurance from taxable income is considered a “tax expenditure” or “tax subsidy” because it is an exception to the usual rule that all compensation is counted as taxable income. In fact, the employer tax exclusion is the largest single subsidy in the tax code. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, it reduced federal tax collections by $246 billion in 2007 — $145 billion in income taxes and $101 billion in payroll taxes." "Although the tax exclusion provides a big boost to employer-sponsored health coverage, it is poorly targeted. It gives the greatest benefit to those with the highest incomes, although they are the group that least needs help paying for health insurance. The 24 per­cent of tax units with incomes over $75,000 in 2004 received almost half of the benefits of the exclusion, while the 27 per­cent of tax units with incomes under $20,000 received just 6 percent of the benefits." (Limiting the Tax Exclusion for Employer-Sponsored Insurance Can Help Pay for Health Reform. By Paul N. Van de Water. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Jun. 4, 2009.)

The Wellness Council of Wisconsin is a subsidiary of the Wellness Councils of America. The biggest funders of the Wellness Council of Wisconsin (2006) are Frank F. Haack & Associates, an insurance firm; and Novartis Pharmaceuticals, whose best-selling products are hypertension drugs, a subject about which there is a notable lack of research on the role of infection despite the well-known effects of a variety of acute and chronic infections. Other funders include Mortenson Matzelle Meldrum, an insurance company; the Harley-Davidson Motorcyle Company; the M&I Bank; the Marshfield Clinic; Strategic Employee Benefit Services; Advanced Healthcare Clinics, Milwaukee area; the big group health insurance companies, Group Health Cooperative (GHC) and Physicians Plus; Council Board of Directors: President: Ron Rutowski, Creation Technologies-Milwaukee; Vice President: Cheryl Lehman, Pfizer Inc.; Secretary: Cheryl Mealey, Frank F. Haack & Associates, Inc.; Treasurer: Kathy Mlada, Actuant Corporation; Rosemary Curtin, Harley-Davidson Motor Company; Lucy Gilles-Khouri, Dean Health Systems S.C.; Dana Hogan, Schoeneck Containers, Inc.; Kelly Jenkins, [Corporate Counsel] Patch Products, Inc. Sean LaBorde, Mortenson, Matzelle & Meldrum; Cindy Lese, Aurora Health Care; Dr. Michael Lischak, Columbia St. Mary's; Tim Markus, Lab Safety Supply, Inc.; Jim Nord, SC Johnson; Laurie O'Loughlin, InPro Corporation; Donna Owens, Health Solutions Ltd.; Janet Sanders, Ozaukee Bank; Beth Stewart, WEA Trust [created by the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the insurance trust of the politically powerful teachers' group that brainwashes our children with lies and defamations, in 1970]; Donna Stone, Marshfield Clinic; and Dick Tillmar, Diversified Insurance Services, Inc.

Workplace Wellness in Wisconsin (just like everywhere)

Just look at the ignorant, arrogant tripe those "Workplace Wellness" nazis spout. "Alla Tua Salute – from the Italian expression 'to your health' – was created last year to spawn a competitive environment among employers in the Fox Valley to become known as a healthy place to work. Why? Because the economics of health care in the United States have been and will continue to be in a state of crisis until American patients learn to better manage their own health, and learn to consume health care products and services in an intelligent, cost-effective manner. That may sound too strict an indictment of ourselves, our family members, friends and neighbors." And how do these pieces of crap propose to magically solve health costs? With a noxious culture of scapegoating, supplemented with workplace hand sanitizers and Vitamin C, at a cost of over $50 to $100 per employee! As if hand sanitizers will prevent the airborne diseases that cause a high proportion of absenteeism! And, as if Vitamin C is scientifically proven to prevent illness! This rubbish is what these pinheads call "intelligent" and "cost-effective."

"But the fact of the matter is that after almost two decades of managed care and a couple generations of reliance on employer-based health care insurance, the average American health care patient is so far removed from the actual costs of care it’s difficult to make smart health care decisions." Then let's get rid of it, and take care of our own health all ourselves, without the burden of paying for your abuse and charlatanism! And don't try to blame the employees for using those benefits, we know how your kind exploit and manipulate the simpletons to sign up by making them think they're getting free candy! But no, that would be too logical - they conclude that "After years of trying to identify solutions to the issue of increasing health care costs, it’s become evident that fostering an environment where patients act as engaged consumers of health care and ultimately become the master of their own health lies in the hands of employers." And their hero of the year, Miller Electric, thinks that paying for parasites to micromanage their employees lives' by making them drink more water each day, take the stairs rather than an elevator, and logging their daily nutritional intake. And, of course the filthy vermin banned smoking, so that "employees aren’t even able to go outside during their regular 10-minute break for a cigarette." No, rather than being responsible for ourselves, these vermin want us to be credulous widdle children, meekly cowering as they berate us with pseudo-scientific crap!

"'We took a look at the top three issues from the HRAs to try to determine where we could impact the most,' said Curtin. She cited a result from a recent HRA that indicated a surprisingly high number of employees hadn’t received tetanus shots in the last 10 years, so the company provided employees with onsite tetanus shots at no cost." Who is she kidding - the health establishment itself could hardly care less about seeing that people get booster tetanus shots, even if they ask about it! "One day this past January, the company rented and brought into the office a bone densitometer for a half day and encouraged employees to take a no-cost osteoporosis screening." Presumably followed up in most cases with advice to exercise and get calcium, which is virtually worthless at best with purported risk reductions of less than two. "4imprint holds a weekly classes at its offices after work hours for Pilates and yoga – employees still have to pay a nominal $24 fee for an eight-session course, but can use their wellness reimbursement if they took an HRA." Pilates [?] and yoga - now there's real hardcore science for you! "Like Miller Electric, 4imprint has enlisted the assistance of a contracted nurse and wellness coach to visit the office regularly." [$$$$] (Alla tua Salute! 2007. Story by Sean Fitzgerald. Lake Winnebago Business to Business.)

Corporate "Philanthropy" Bloodsucks the Taxpayers

Here is how those parasitical health fascist charities got so much money: They used their political connections to write the tax laws so that the taxpayers carry much of the burden of their supposed "philanthropy." For a $1,000,000 corporate gift, the company gets a $349,650 tax writeoff (which then must be shouldered by others.)

The company's cost for such a program is minimal. If properly constructed, it would consist of a small P&L charge in the first few years equal to the difference between the premium paid and the policy's cash value. Typically, the policy will return to the company at the director's death an amount equal to all of the premiums paid, plus a factor for use of funds and net clear proceeds to make the gift(s) to charity. As an example, let's examine the illustrated results (box above).

State Privacy Laws (as of May 10, 1996)

The Smokers' Rights Act of 1992 (Wisconsin)

Wisconsin Statutes Section 111.321 states: "Subject to ss. 111.33 to 111.36, no employer, labor organization, employment agency, licensing agency or other person may engage in any act of employment discrimination as specified in s. 111.322 against any individual on the basis of age, race, creed, color, disability, marital status, sex, national origin, ancestry, arrest record, conviction record, membership in the national guard, state defense force or any other reserve component of the military forces of the United States or this state or use or nonuse of lawful products off the employer's premises during nonworking hours."

How did all this crap happen? The Lasker Lobby!

The health fascist hucksters of the Lasker Lobby took over our health establishment during World War II, and they have been parasitically feeding on our tax dollars ever since to fund scientific fraud that promotes their totalitarian agenda of controlling peoples' lives. The mass media are their accomplices, who unquestioningly spew their propaganda and lies, and keep the public ignorant by ruthlesslessly suppressing all criticism and dissent. The vast majority of the public doesn't even know that the National Institutes of Health exist, let alone who controls them, so the Lasker Lobby rules us in secrecy just like in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, pulling strings behind the scenes to install their lackeys and dictate their agenda to the politicians. Thanks to these people controlling the BIG MONEY, the incompetent, malice-ridden, power-obsessed charlatans have multiplied like vermin!

Health Nazi John Banzhaf's petition to the Department of Health & Human Services, Health Care Financing Administration seeking a reversal of a 1987 ruling prohibiting health insurance companies from charging higher rates to obese persons is founded on the same Big Lies! "[E]ven as early as 1984, the NAIC's [National Association of Insurance Commissioners] own research had indicated that fully 60%-80% of all health care costs were caused not by germs, viruses, etc., but rather by behaviors over which the individual customers had control. These unhealthy behaviors included smoking, being overweight, abusing alcohol and/or illegal drugs, failing to wear seat belts, getting insufficient exercise, etc. The NAIC therefore wondered whether it would be appropriate, fair, workable, and legal for insurance companies to charge different rates based upon one or more of these factors." (link http://banzhaf.net/docs/hhsfatpet In: HHS OKs Penalizing Obese For Health Insurance Plans Can Charge Non-Obese and Non-Smokers Less. By John Banzhaf.) In fact, that 1984 "research" is so obsolete that it's defective on its face, and the Surgeon General Reports have deliberately perpetuated the illusion that they are legitimate science And, this ruling was approved by the DHHS Secretary, former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, the corrupt snake who approved the state lawsuit against the tobacco companies after his big campaign-contributing law firm was promised a cut of the loot.

cast 01-16-10