Cost •
Every 30 seconds in the United States someone
files for bankruptcy due to a serious health
problem and 50 percent of all bankruptcy filings
in the United States were the direct result of
excessive medical
expenses.
•
Costs continue to rise by double-digits each
year. Employers (500+ workers) saw a 10.2% hike
in health care costs in 2003 and 12.5% in
2004. • Premiums for
employee-sponsored health insurance in the U.S.
have jumped five times faster than worker
earnings since 2000. •
Drug expenditures have been the fastest growing
segment of health care spending in this country,
rising by more than 15 percent every year since
1998.
Employer
Risk • 60-80% of
accidents on the job are
stress-related.
• Double digit
increases in Workers’ compensation premiums
every year result from mental stress
claims.
From
the 2000 annual “Attitudes in the American
Workplace VI” Gallup Poll: • 14% of
respondents had felt like striking a coworker in
the past year, but didn’t
• 25% have felt
like screaming or shouting because of job
stress,
• 10% are concerned
about an individual at work they fear could
become violent;
• 9% are aware of
an assault or violent act in their
workplace
• 18% had
experienced some sort of threat or verbal
intimidation in the past year.
• A jury in New
York awarded nearly $6 million in 1996 to three
women for repetitive stress injury allegedly due
to faulty computer keyboards.
Chronic Conditions •
Researchers have estimated that preventable
disease makes up 70% of all illness and
associated costs.
•
Chronic diseases, particularly heart disease and
cancer account for seven of every ten deaths and
affect the quality of life of 125 million
Americans.
• Chronic diseases are among
the most common and costly health problems, they
are also among the most
preventable.
Obesity • 67% of Americans
are currently overweight and 27% are clinically
obese. This has doubled since 1980 and is
increasing at 10% a year.
• Nearly 80%
of obese people now have diabetes, high blood
pressure, coronary heart disease or other
ailments.
• Average
annual medical claims costs per 100 employees:
Normal weight - $7,503, Obese:
$51,019.
• The direct
medical costs for diseases related to obesity
are approximately $98 billion per year for Type
2 diabetes $8.8 billion per year for heart
disease, $5.3 billion per year for
osteoarthritis, $3.2 billion per year for
gallbladder disease, $1.3 billion for colon
cancer, $1.1 billion for breast cancer $310
million for endometrial
cancer.
Sedentary Lifestyle • Only
15% of American adults engage in regular
vigorous exercise. 60% do not exercise at
all.
• Lack of
exercise significantly increases the risk of
coronary heart disease, hypertension, cancer,
diabetes, anxiety and depression.
Preventable Deaths • Half of the
deaths in the United States are due to
preventable causes such as biochemical stress
(diet, tobacco, alcohol): 25%, physical stress
(lack of exercise): 300,000
deaths.
Absenteeism • 60 percent of
managers felt stress-related illness was present
in their workers, resulting in decreased
productivity and 16 sick days that cost
$8,000.00 annually per employee.
• Over half of the
550 million working days lost to absenteeism are
stress related.
• 12% of those
polled by the American Institute of stress
called in sick because of job stress, 19% quit a
previous position because of job stress and 24%
had been driven to tears because of workplace
stress.
• In terms of lost
hours due to absenteeism, reduced productivity
and workers compensation benefits, stress costs
American industry about $7,500 (US) per worker
per year. (American Psychological
Association)
• Health promotion
for high risk employees leads to better results.
A national manufacturing company reports a
decrease of 12.2% in illness days for these
employees.
• A 2-year study by
The DuPont Corporation of the effect of its
comprehensive health promotion program on
absences among workers reports that blue collar
employees at intervention sites had a 14%
decline in disability days vs. 5.8% decline for
controls. There were a total of 11,726 fewer net
disability days.
Productivity • High
stress levels decrease output
50%–70%.
• A Johnson &
Johnson study found that employee attitude
changes were greater at health promotion
intervention sites with significant positive
attitude changes noted in the categories of
organizational commitment, supervision, working
conditions, job competence/security and
pay/benefits.
• Swedish
investigators found that mental performance was
significantly better in physically fit workers
than in non-fit workers. Fit workers committed
27% fewer errors on tasks involving
concentration and short-term memory, as compared
with the performance of non-fit
workers.
Stress • Job stress
creates more health claims than financial or
family problems.
• Job stress
costs over $300 billion annually due to
accidents, absenteeism, employee turnover,
diminished productivity, direct medical, legal
and insurance costs, workers’ compensation,
legal and FELA judgments.
• 80% of
workers feel stress on the job, nearly half say
they need help in learning how to manage stress
and 42% say their coworkers need such
help.
• 25% of
workers view their jobs as the number one
stressor in their lives; 75% have more
on-the-job stress than a generation
ago.
Turnover • 40% of job turnover
is due to stress.
• Xerox estimated
it cost them $1.0 to $1.5 million to replace a
top executive and that was two decades
ago!
• Replacing
an average employee today costs between $3,000
and $13,000.
• 43% of
adults suffer from adverse health effects due to
stress. stress also causes about 1 million
employees to be absent any given workday and is
ultimately responsible for 50% of employee
burnout and 40% of employee turnover.
Lifestyle • Sedentary
lifestyles account for 15% of all healthcare
costs and only 20-25% of the population achieves
the recommended 30 minutes of daily physical
activity.
• The total
healthcare costs for a male 24 year old tobacco
user are $220,000 or $40 per pack of cigarettes.
23% of Americans use tobacco.
• Obesity
accounts for 12% of healthcare costs and 67% of
the US population is either overweight or obese
today.
ROI • Bank of
America experienced a return of $5.96 for every
$1.00 spent
•
PacBell experienced
a $3.10 return for every $1.00
spent
•
Wisconsin School
District Insurance Group experienced a $4.47
return for every $1.00
spent
•
Prudential
Insurance experienced a return of $2.90 for
every $1.00 spent
•
General Mills
experienced a return of $3.50 for every $1.00
spent
