The chief executive of the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Delos "Toby" Cosgrove, did an interview with Fortune magazine about health care and "reform." The clinic doesn't hire new employees who are smokers and even goes as far as including a test for nicotine with the drug test for new employees. "We test all new employees for nicotine, as well as drugs, as part of their employment physical. It's very interesting what you can do with that sort of thing, and it's completely legal," Dr. Cosgrove says. When I was hiring at the New York Sun I never went so far as giving a nicotine test, but I sometimes asked job applicants if they smoked. To me the issue wasn't that they'd get sick. It was that New York had basically banned smoking in the workplace, so smokers were having to leave the office and go stand outside and smoke. Instead of being at their desks working, the employees would be outside smoking. What do you think? Is it reasonable for a business to refuse to hire smokers? Should health care businesses like the Cleveland Clinic have different, stricter standards for employee health than other businesses? If the government pays for more health care under ObamaCare, will it be justified in taking a heavier hand in decisions, like diet, exercise, smoking, or even how much sleep you get each night, that are often seen as matters of individual free choice? The comments thread is open.
Fortune Interview With Cleveland Clinic CEO
https://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/02/fortune-interview-with-cleveland-clinic-ceo
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