Did you see it?  Big announcement last week based on a national survey.  Companies will be facing “ONLY” an 11% increase in their health care premiums in 2009.  Isn’t that fantastic news?

Are you kidding me?  11% increase is good news?  Is anyone else laughing along with me?  Can you imagine if your accounting costs went up 11% (for the 8th straight year)?  Or what if your lease jumped 11% again.  Would that be good news? 

Fortunately, some forward-thinking companies have stopped covering their eyes.  They’ve stopped being shocked by the annual increases and started taking action.  They’re initiating an employee wellness program that will not only reduce those health care (and disability!) costs over the long run, but will also impact critical areas like sick time and retention.  Well done!  Are we prejudiced about the value of employee wellness programs?  Of course we are!  It’s what we do.  But we wouldn’t be doing what we do if we didn’t see the positive impact in company after company after company.

Let’s take off the blindfolds and fix the problem – not just figure out new and different ways to pay for the annual increases…