Healthy Employees Make for a Healthy Bottom Line

Healthcare has been a central theme of many discussions in recent years, and for good reason. Life expectancy in the United States is now 29^th among the nations even though our per capita GDP ranks second. Fifty years ago, the U S ranked in the top five nations for life expectancy. What happened? Currently the U S spends more than double the per capita expenditures for the average of the 30 economically developed countries. 

Promoting healthy lifestyles is not only beneficial for our community as a whole, but can be good for a company’s bottom line as well. Chronic illness costs the U S approximately $1.1 trillion in lost work productivity. The National Business Group on Health believes that both the public and private sector should support and reward effective and efficient preventive medicine. Prevention will drastically improve health outcomes, curtail chronic diseases and will significantly reduce costs. These facts lead us to recognize that the discussion of health in our nation must be broader than who pays the health insurance premium.

            The Atlanta Regional Health Forum wants to initiate action throughout this region among the business, civic and governmental leaders to both understand and begin to improve the health of our population. Our first step is to bring together a group of employers from the various sectors to look at data, listen to health economists and health professionals in order to increase understanding of the causes for our poor health outcomes.  This first session will present examples and information for reduced cost and increased productivity through employer wellness initiatives.  From this initial meeting, ARHF will recruit partners to expand the educational activity and convene those willing to identify and implement proven interventions that will reduce costs and improve the health of our population.