Would you like your employer to pay for your health club membership? If so, it's time to exercise a muscle you may be neglecting — your political muscle. Some say it's nestled between the right and left lobes of your brain, while others believe it lies very close to the heart. Amazingly, this is one asset whose power can be harnessed even while
its precise location remains a mystery. Better yet, you don't even have to break a sweat.
Start flexing by asking why your employer doesn't already pay for your health club membership. Believe it or not, tax laws discourage such a practice. If a company is large enough to set up an on-site gym for employees, the costs are tax-deductible business expenses, but if an employer without such resources wants to pay for employee memberships at an off-site health club, the cost is not, in tax terms, a legitimate business expense. Consequently, even if your employer paid your health club fees, you wouldn't get the full financial benefit because you would pay tax on those dollars. But here's how you can exercise that invisible muscle to bring about change.
Know Who's Boss
Regardless of who you work for, when it comes to the political process, your elected representatives work for you. However, they aren't mind readers. You have to tell them how they can help you; unfortunately, life being what it is, effective communication requires a bit more effort than simply saying, "Tell my boss to pay for my gym membership."
Tune In
It takes federal rather than state action to make the change we're talking about. Specifically, a new law has to be proposed and passed to make health club memberships a tax-deductible expense for employers and a tax-free perk for employees. To be a player in the game, you need to speak a bit of Washington lingo. In practice, that means being aware of any proposed new laws (technically called bills during the proposal and discussion stages) that would create such an employee benefit, so that you can let your federal representatives know that you want them to support and help pass the legislation. How, with a busy life of your own, can you keep track of who's proposing what? Visit www.healthclubs.com and check out "Exercise Your Rights." The site gives a short summary of the relevant bills and makes it easy to take action.
Speak Your Mind
Whether you do or don't already know who works for you in Washington, the same Web site enables you to quickly e-mail all your congressional representatives a pre-formatted letter (which you can personalize, if you like), and ask them to support the relevant legislation. All you need to know is your ZIP code.
Communicate Effectively
The nonvirtual world offers more ways to exercise your political muscle, by phone, regular mail and in person, and there are three key people in our nation's capital who want to know what you think: the two senators from your state and the member of the House of Representatives from your congressional district. Since communication is a two-way street, it's helpful to get some sense of what they're already working on, a feat that is easily accomplished by typing in your ZIP code to locate their Web sites at www.senate.gov for senators. To access information about the House of Representatives, visit www.house.gov. On the flip side, knowing key facts that support the need for health club memberships to become a tax-deductible employee benefit will enable you to present your case effectively. To get started, use our Vital Statistics when talking or writing to your elected representatives.
VITAL STATISTICS
Why businesses deserve a tax break to pay for employee health club memberships:
A 19-year study of more than 6,600 men showed that fitness can reduce health-care costs by more than 50 percent. The research was published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the scientific journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.
Seven in 10 Americans don't get enough physical activity to maintain good health, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that America could save more than $76 billion annually in direct medical costs if inactive adults began exercising regularly.
Regular physical activity can lower risks for obesity, high blood pressure, unhealthy cholesterol levels, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, osteoporosis, depression, arthritis, dementia, eating disorders, and colon, prostate and breast cancers. Obesity alone raises health-care costs by 36 percent and medication costs by 77 percent.
The number of deaths linked to lack of physical activity and poor diet has increased by 33 percent since 1990, to an annual total of 400,000, according to the CDC.
Currently, 98 percent of our health-care budget is spent on curing rather than preventing diseases.
