The verdict on wellness programs has been in for several years: They don’t work. Columnist hiltzikm explains:
Trump’s position on the notorious Texas-led attack on Obamacare would be disastrous for employer-sponsored health plans.
The wellness initiative is especially half-baked. Health insurance expert David Anderson of Duke University observes that the lifestyle component of the programs gained popularity among big employers because it was “facially plausible. ... Getting people to walk more, go to the gym a couple of days a week and show lower blood pressure readings after six months or a year could theoretically lead to lower costs and healthier people.”” while delivering benefits to those who didn’t need them.
“Most of the benefits go to people who don’t need to change their behavior,” Anderson writes. The costs fall on those with preexisting conditions, who may not be able to utilize the lifestyle incentives, since “the people who are most likely not participating in wellness programs are those with significant health expenses and barriers to access.”
Whether any state will take Trump up on his invitation to join the demonstration program isn’t clear. The administrative burdens that come with the invitation are weighty. States would have to show that the program “will not result in any decrease in coverage or increase in cost to the federal government. ... States must also ensure that their wellness programs do not discriminate based on health status.
That’s a sizable ask in return for creating a program that doesn’t work. But the administration portrayed the offer as “another example of President Trump’s commitment to driving better health outcomes by offering states new flexibility to innovate,” as Seema Verma, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, put it. So there may be some states misinformed enough to take him at his word.
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