Corporate Health Insurance News

Professor Mike Daube, a leading anti-tobacco campaigner, has today (May 17) revealed a 10-point plan that could see Australia being completely smoke-free within 15 years.

This plan was part of a paper, titled A Smoke-Free Australia: How Do We Get There?, which was presented at the Heart Foundation Conference this morning. This is a three-day event that is currently underway in Adelaide.

Every year, more than a quarter of a million Australians are being driven to quit the workforce prematurely because of debilitating back and arthritic pain.

This shocking statistic was revealed by Andrew McNamara, chief executive of The Chiropractors' Association of Australia, in a May 1 statement.

Mr McNamara said that retirements due to recurring medical problems are a "major setback to our nation’s productivity, with the government taking a $2.9 billion loss to GDP and an extra $1 billion in welfare payments and loss of tax income annually."

David Davis, Victoria's health minister, received a flu shot on Thursday (April 18) and is encouraging others in the workforce to follow suit.

There have already been 2,540 reported cases of the flu in Australia this year, which is a considerable jump on last year's total of 1,850 for the same time period.

“Every year," Mr Davis said, "thousands of people contract the flu and this has a huge impact not only on themselves but on their family, friends, colleagues and ultimately their workplace".

Employees who are stressed or unhappy due to problems with either their professional or personal lives are likely to be far less productive and engaged than other, healthier team members.

This is a big part of the reason why many organisations choose to put in place corporate health plans, in order to ensure employees have access to the support and information they need.