Clearly, the National Health Service (NHS) is bursting with creativity in its health policies. When he wants to better diagnose dementia, he offers his doctors a premium. When he wants to make the social insured lose weight, he offers them a financial reward.
The overweight problem in the UK is not skimping: more than two-thirds of adults are considered clinically overweight or obese. The NHS spends more than 5 billion pounds (6.3 billion euros) treating obesity-related diseases each year. Radical reform of prevention policy is needed in health for Simon Stevens, director of the NHS: “As the nation grows, we are spending millions of pounds in future taxes just to fund disease preventable “.
To motivate the troops and melt them down, the government hopes the financial incentive will work. The exact outlines of the plan are not known, but the Daily Mail specifies that the overweight people who will be included in the program will all be employees.
If they manage to lose weight, they will be given vouchers or benefit from advantages from employers (in turn rewarded with tax reductions).
Simon Stevens justifies the involvement of British companies: “Employees in many countries have developed voluntary programs for their employees, in which you earn a little money if you participate in slimming plans like Weight Watchers”.