With expensive healthcare costs on the tide of a recession, it is not surprising that many companies are impatient to rein and even slash healthcare costs for their employees.
But companies really do not have to wait for the government to legislate cost controls.
As it is, large companies like Safeway and Wal-Mart are reforming their employees' healthcare programs in-house, and making them accountable for unhealthy habits like overeating and smoking.
These companies are actually taking advantage of the little-known fact that 70 percent of all diseases are caused by unhealthy habits.
In the case of Safeway, which operates 1,775 grocery stores in the United States and Canada, has been running a voluntary program called Healthy Measures among 30,000 of its non-union workers.
With this program, employees can qualify for a discount in their healthcare counterpart if they score perfectly in a health test.
On the other hand, the employees who scored lowest are made to pay 51 percent more in premiums than the employees who scored perfectly.
The test is actually just a simple cheek swab for employees to prove they do not smoke and are keeping their cholesterol and blood pressure controlled.
Employees who flunk the test in one year but improve their scores in the next can get a rebate on the added premium.
To make sure that their employees are living healthy, Safeway operates a fitness center at its headquarters and offers discounts on gym memberships.
Wal-Mart also operates a similar voluntary health program called the Personal Sustainability Project, which the company said has inspired nearly 20,000 of its employees ("associates") to quit smoking and to collectively lose more than 184,000 pounds (83,000 kg) in weight.