How workers view health care is looked out in a new survey conducted by the National Business Group and Hewitt. These insights are critical for businesses to be aware of as they examine their present and future health care plans. Help for prescription medicines is high on the list. 

Despite the fact that workers say they might know how to get healthy, many aren’t taking action to do so. Seventy two percent of the workers surveyed believe that getting regular preventive care will result in good health. Another 84% think that making wise decisions in their daily life will lead to overall good health. Only 46% of the workers surveyed reported doing a “great” or “good job” of regular working out and only about half of the employees think they do a “great” or good job” of eating healthy. To help with the expensive prices of medicines, most workers surveyed ranked prescription program assistance pretty high. 

Despite the fact that satisfaction is generally high in health programs, participation is low. Workers and dependents say they might know what actions they need to take to get and stay healthy, but participation in many employer-provided health enhancement programs is not as high as employers would like. The most popular programs include biometric screenings (61%), followed by online health information tools (53%) and health risk questionnaires (41%). The least popular programs were stress management programs and employee assistance programs. For workers that have dependent coverage, a prescription program was the number one satisfying benefit.

Financial motivation is a strong factor in participation but non financial, internal motivators can be just as effective. Frequently, employers assume that providing financial incentives for participating in programs will increase participation. Citing that it is “the right thing to do”, close to half of all workers surveyed would complete a health risk questionnaire About 30% of the participants would complete a survey if there was a penalty for not doing so and an additional 30% would do it if there was a monetary incentive involved. In addition, 44% of the workers surveyed said they would be willing to participate in a wellness program furnished by their employer because “it’s the right thing to do”.