Question

Review the discussion question and answer below. Do you agree with the answer? why or why not? Give your opinion.

Discussion Question:

1. Suppose an employer gives employees an insurance discount based on number of hours of physical fitness activities. Who benefits from the program? Who is harmed? Is this ethical?

2. Suppose an employer charges all employees the same premium, regardless of their health habits, Who benefits? Who is harmed? Is this ethical?

Answer: When an employer gives the employees insurance discounts based on number of hours if physical fitness activities the one who benefits from the programs is the employer and the ones who are harmed are the employees. This is because many people might not have capacity to do all the programs and the employees have age gaps which might not allow some to do fitness activities. The activities they do might not be related to the stress they take during work . Hence this is not only harmful but also unethical to relate discounts and fitness activities.

When an employer charges same premium regardless of health habits it is beneficial to the employer and employee. It provides full premium to the employee and any sudden health problems can also be covered as health will not be the same always. This also makes everyone in the company equal and gives equal rights and benefits to everyone which is also ethical.

Answer 1

ANSWER 1 : IT IS NOT ETHICAL MY OPINION

In this category when an employer gives employees an insurance discount based on number of hours of physical fitness activities, the Employer is benefited from the program. As per one of health and fitness related survey, 88% of the population thinks about their health and sign up for health and fitness oriented programs. Among them, only 8 to 10% of them are likely to continue the signed up program and the remaining are most likely to discontinue in fewer days or weeks. This weakness is seen as strength by the employer in providing insurance discount based on the physical fitness where majority of the drop outs are clearly anticipated. So the Employees whose health conditions are not that great are actually being impacted. More so, employees with good physical fitness may not really claim the insurance amount which is a benefiting factor to the insurance company. Hence such initiatives might appear to be appealing and sounds like the organization is caring for the physical fitness of their employees. In reality, it is not ethical to follow such practice and it is an act of discrimination.

ANSWER 2 : IT IS ETHICAL

In this category, when an employer charges all employees the same premium, regardless of their health habit, from the practical perspective, Employee is benefited. There is no harm to the employer. However, the cost is likely to be higher when compared to the first case. The Employer and the Insurance companies can always make their recommendations about the physical fitness of their staff. However, cannot take advantage of the situation in compromising their medical expenses to be incurred by the organization. Today, 90% of the stress levels are predominantly because of the organizational stress that people go through. The physical fitness alone is not the component when it comes to health care. There are several known and unknown symptoms that are resulting in poor health condition of people. Hence it is imperative that employer takes care of health care requirements of their employees. This is the ethical practice to be followed without any discrimination.

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