Illustrating the importance of wellness promotion in the debate over health care reform, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee approved a version of the health care reform bill that includes a provision allowing insurers expanded flexibility to increase premiums for individuals not meeting wellness standards.
Although wellness programs garner bipartisan support, there are strong disagreements over how they should work, whether they should be crafted through legislation or by employers, and whether they really can have much of a positive effect on health care spending.