http://www.msnbc.com/news/958075.asp?0dm=L13JH
Damn.
Even though the payoff may not come for many years, employers know that healthy employees make less health care claims and are more productive.
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With two-thirds of U.S. adults overweight or obese, many businesses are offering workers weight-loss programs to try to reduce their hefty costs for obesity-related problems, from heart disease and diabetes to arthritis, stroke, certain cancers, depression and lost productivity.
The cost of obesity to U.S. businesses - for health care, sick leave and life and disability insurance - is estimated at $12.7 billion, according to a recent study in the American Journal of Health Promotion.
Another study, in the journal Health Affairs, estimated that cost could top $30 billion. Meanwhile, company health insurance premiums jumped an average of 13 percent last year, according to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.
Damn.