According to a report in Reuters, several leaders of major American corporations are threatening to start siding with the foes of healthcare reform if President Barack Obama's administration does not stop challenging some workplace wellness programs: "The programs aim to control healthcare costs by reducing smoking, obesity, hypertension and other risk factors that can lead to expensive illnesses. A bipartisan provision in the 2010 healthcare reform law allows employers to reward workers who participate and penalize those who don't." But the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed lawsuits challenging wellness programs at Honeywell and two other companies, Reuters reports. The EEOC argues that the programs require medical testing in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
According to Reuters, big companies could pursue several strategies to challenge Obamacare: support legal challenges to the subsidies given to people with low incomes to buy health insurance on the federal exchange, make executives available to testify at hearings on Obamacare, and radically change employer-sponsored health insurance by giving workers a fixed amount of money to buy coverage on private insurance exchanges.
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