The health of employees is continually getting more attention from governments around the world. Mid-may saw Barack Obama’s spokesman say “As a result of many successful program at businesses across the country, workers have become more engaged in their own health, productivity is increasing, absenteeism is dropping, and employers are passing some of their health care savings to their workers”. 

Obama felt these programs were so successful, that his government is investigating the best approach to implementing a workplace health program for US federal employees.

In Australia, several state governments have launched government-funded workplace health programs for the private sector. This was initially started by the states but more recently, the commonwealth government has distributed funds to all states and territories for similar activities. While it is still early days, it will be of interest to see how this unrolls. There is no doubt that using government funds to implement effective workplace health programs will be a successful way of improving the health of our nation.