Related Articles
Spring 2007
- Message from the Co-Chairmen (Spring, 2007)
- Health Promotion: Help for Laborers and their Health & Welfare Plans
- Help for Laborers and their Health & Welfare Plans
- Nutrition and Fitness for Laborers
- Helping Laborers Get the Substance Abuse Treatment They Need
- Drug-Free Workplace initiatives
- LaboreRx - Lower Drug Costs and Better Service
- Get That Annual Check-Up
- Occupational Safety & Health: Safety Consultants for Labor and Management
- 'Best Practice' Seminars Reach Out to Contractors
- Laborers' True Stories
- Regulatory Work
- OSHA May Address Portland Cement Hazard
- ANSI to Adopt Hearing Conservation Standard
- Preventing Backovers in Work Zones
- LIUNA Funds, Allies Target Work Zone Safety
- Safety Committees: Safer Workplaces and Reduced Workers Comp Premiums
- Health and Safety in Canada
- www.LHSFNA.org: The Fund's Communications Hub
Published: Spring, 2007; Vol 9, Num 1
Get That Annual Check-Up
One of the most basic problems in American health care is the ongoing failure of Americans to take personal responsibility for their health.
Consider the analogy of Americans and their cars. You can buy a Cadillac, a Chevy or a cheap used car. Whatever it is, you take care of it. Americans take better care of their cars than they do of themselves.
Do Laborers take care of themselves? Most of LIUNA’s health and welfare plans offer a wellness benefit. The plan may pay up to $200 to cover an annual doctor’s visit and associated tests. If you get this annual check-up, potentially serious problems will be discovered at an early, readily treatable stage. This means less cost down the road, but, especially, it means less pain and suffering, a healthier, more vigorous, longer-lasting life. Do LIUNA members and their families take advantage of this benefit? Sadly, the answer for most is no.
LIUNA health and welfare funds that provide a wellness benefit estimate that only one in twenty Laborers and family members actually get their annual check-up. That is only five percent.
We can be pretty sure that more than five percent of Laborers get the oil changed in their trucks. Such preventive maintenance should be applied to their health as well. If it breaks down, you can buy a new car or truck, but you only get one body. Take greater personal responsibility for your own health. Start with an annual check-up by your primary care doctor.