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New York - Leading CEOs, angered by the Obama administration's challenge to certain "workplace wellness" programmes are threatening to side with anti-Obamacare forces unless the government backs off, sources say.
Major corporations have broadly supported President Barack Obama's healthcare reform despite concerns over several of its elements, largely because it included provisions encouraging the wellness programmes.
The programmes aim to control healthcare costs by reducing smoking, obesity, hypertension and other risk factors that can lead to expensive illnesses. A bipartisan provision in the 2010 healthcare reform law allows employers to reward workers who participate and penalize those who don't.
But recent lawsuits filed by the administration's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), challenging the programmes at Honeywell International and two smaller companies, have thrown the future of that part of Obamacare into doubt.
The lawsuits infuriated some large employers so much that they are considering aligning themselves with Obama's opponents.
"The fact that the EEOC sued shocked our members," said Maria Ghazal, vice president and counsel at the Business Roundtable, a group of chief executives of more than 200 large US corporations.
"They don't understand why a plan in compliance with the ACA (Affordable Care Act) is the target of a lawsuit," she said. "This is a major issue to our members."
