Exercise for Cash

Need motivation to exercise and eat right? How about cash? The British government is offering just that with a new program it is launching.

A health adviser to the government explains that children in the U.K. will receive taxpayer-funded financial bonuses into their state savings accounts if they maintain a healthy lifestyle. The payments into the Child Trust Funds would leave healthy teenagers with more cash than their less-fit peers when the tax-free policies mature on their 18th birthdays. Children who get immunized, walk or cycle to class, and take other healthy steps will get bonuses to their so-called “baby bonds.”

The idea came from Julian le Grand, chairman of Health England. Grand also said that healthy eating at school could be rewarded by linking swipe cards to the program. Exercise among young people could also be monitored, perhaps through pedometers or devices attached to bicycles, he said.

It’s about time, right? Fitness centers do all they can to motivate members, but most classes, programs, etc., only go so far. What if insurance companies actually paid people to work out, or at least made their insurance coverage much cheaper? The idea isn’t new, but the British government has finally made a serious gesture in that direction.

Fitness centers would definitely benefit from a plan such as this, since working out in a facility would be easier to track then, say, wearing a pedometer.

But a similar program in the U.S. isn’t going to materialize on its own. Facility owners, healthcare providers and all healthy-minded people need to work to make it happen.

We all know that most people need motivation to exercise and eat right. Maybe money will finally be what tips the scales in the right direction.


P.S. Happy St. Patrick's Day!