07 Dec Can CoolSculpt Help with Fat Discrimination?
At RefinedMD, we know patients seek out CoolSculpting for a number of reasons—and one of them is to avoid fat discrimination … and even higher health insurance premiums. CoolSculpting isn’t a weight loss procedure, but a contouring procedure, yet discrimination is still an issue in some fields and businesses. According to the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), it’s legal for employers to assess their employees as much as 30% of the cost of provided health benefit (insurance) coverage if the employee doesn’t meet certain wellness goals (established by the Department of Health and Human Services), which include weight and/or body mass index (BMI). Critics say that this amounts to a thinly veiled form of “fat discrimination.” However, supporters feel this a good thing as it establishes a financial incentive for people to work toward long-term health goals.
Many people have a strained relationship with health, wellness, and body-image. Some demographics naturally have a higher propensity to obesity and diabetes than others. Everyone has seen the effects of an unhealthy lifestyle, whether through our own journey or that of friends and family.
How Our Backgrounds Informs Our Views
When the Affordable Care Act was first introduced years ago, many people were wary. We might have watched others struggle with securing affordable, comprehensive healthcare. Some might avoid seeing the doctor when they should out of fear of the resulting bills. For many, healthcare requirements are a burden that leaves them choosing between their health and everything else.
The conundrum of assessing an additional cost based on meeting “wellness goals” is difficult. It’s a question that’s broad, subjective, and often outdated when we consider wellness information from major organizations like the Department of Health and Human Services can be. The body mass index (BMI) scale is a notoriously problematic and often unrealistic means of assessing health. It’s a tool that can be used for fat discrimination, but also an extremely powerful method of dictating what’s considered healthy. Some people might be far from healthy at the lower end of the BMI scale (in cases of eating disorders, for example)—but not according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Much discussion surrounding the stress of healthcare costs on an unhealthy society focuses on how expensive it is to care for obese patients and the side effects of extra weight. However, anyone who’s seen a bill for in-patient, long-term anorexia treatment knows it goes both ways.
An Employer’s Role in Your Health
Should an employer have a say and a role in the health of their employees? That’s a big question with no easy answer. Obviously, there are benefits to the employer when employees are happy and healthy. Fewer sick days taken, fewer odds of disability claims, fewer bugs passed around the office, and more productive workers all sound like a great upside and reason employers might want to take an active role in their employees’ health.
Many employees love health-based perks at work. A free gym membership, lunchtime walking group, and complimentary acupuncture or massages? Yes, please! However, looking at the more controlling side, like charging more for insurance that’s now required by law for most Americans to have based on arbitrary measures that likely haven’t been updated in years, and the “lighter” perks just aren’t worth it.
The Problem with “Wellness”
Beyond having outdated measures of health, there’s also the fact that it’s simply impossible to measure health and wellness of all people using any single (or handful!) method of scales. During the last Olympics, we’ve taken a detour from cheering on our chosen teams to tear apart the bodies of the world’s most elite athletes. Trolls, flamers and baiters flooded message boards when athletes like India’s female disc throwers, some hovering at 200 pounds, made headlines. When the best athletes in the world are called fat, and when many would definitely surpass BMI guidelines, all while many others are stepping forward to discuss their own struggles with anorexia and bulimia, how can the rest of us be expected to abide by stringent and broad guidelines?
Many think it’s not an employer’s business what they weigh. Unless the work environment requires employees to present a certain way (i.e. entertainers, models and the like), a few arbitrary measures of health dictated by massive federal departments might be seen as useless at best and harmful at worst.
Defining Your Own “Healthy”
What’s more important? Ensuring your employees fall neatly within parameters of the BMI scale, a scale that will likely be replaced by a better yet still way-too-broad scale in a few years—or focusing on what really matters? Providing a safe, enjoyable working environment. Achieving the goals of the business (which have nothing to do with how good Jeff in accounting looks in swim trunks). Hiring the best candidates for the role and the company. These are what really matter for employers and businesses, and should be the focus of hiring and retaining employees.
Still, if you are looking for safe, affordable ways to get a little help with bodily contouring and sculpting for your best interests (not your employer’s), CoolSculpting is a popular option and RefinedMD is a leading provider. Call us today or book online for a consultation and discover how this non-invasive procedure can target fat in a way no exercise or diet can.