What do we know about wellness? Pretty much what your Mom knew: get important immunizations, don’t inhale or ingest pathogens and other stuff that are bad for you, eat a variety of foods, get enough sleep, take reasonable safety precautions when driving or working with dangerous materials, and stay physically active. We don’t even really know how people quit smoking as most who have quit have done it on their own.

Once a problem develops, wellness is out the window. Then we’re talking about medical care to manage or cure a particular condition.

So programs like this are trying to influence medical care which, as Devon points out, has almost nothing to do with wellness.

Money? Fame?

Yep. That’s about all I can think of. Other than those two, the only other reason I have for eating healthier/exercising/going to my doctor is for my own self satisfaction.

I suppose that free prescriptions (if I were a Medicaid patient) might lure me to join the program, but I agree with C. Lewis. And Devon makes a great point. What’s the benefit of all of this spending?

Any money spent on people already pursuing healthy lifestyles; or spent on those unwilling to pursue healthy lifestyles is essentially wasted.

Another problem is that when you do nudge people adopt healthy behaviors the cost of the nudge should not exceed the benefits from healthy behaviors.

From an economic standpoint, a better option is to internalize the cost and benefits of whatever behavior people choose.