Would it pay for the government to pay people for daily walking?

@robertwills: good idea! We need positive, creative thinking in our communities - kudos to you!
My grandson is in WI and his pharmaceutical company pays their employees for weekly exercise hours. I wonder if there are more firms who would be willing to pay employees for healthy activity? The company benefits by improving morale, and perhaps less sick days or job injuries because employees are more fit?
I think you are on to something!!!!

It would pay if the government would incentivize insurance companies to cover nutrition counseling on an individual basis. I had to pay out of pocket for a dietian to learn how to nourish my body. It would benefit the government to pay for research that actually looks for ways to reverse poor health and not to just rely on pharmaceutical companies to develop symptom reduces drugs that do not cure the disease.

Most Medicare advantage plans will pay for gym memberships but traditional Medicare doesn't which is foolish.

That's my humble opinion

Great idea! I think the government should pay people to walk. It could be monitored by a smart watch.

Exercise is a good idea. How to promote it in America is a challenge. Likewise, our diet is unhealthy.
Enjoy your next walk.

Thank you everyone who replied. I'm really glad you are receptive to such an idea. The process could be made to be fun, and effective, like you have immediate access to what you earned through walking after you have covered a certain amount of miles. Then you get a free coupon for walking shoes every 200 miles.

We need to create happiness (and safety) in society and good health is the cornerstone. I have been walking an hour almost daily for many years. I can tell you without a doubt, without exaggeration, that this has brought me happiness that I never imagined could exist when I was younger. It's not just the act of walking or the relaxed feeling after or the high quality sleep or the prefect health vitals. It's what it led me to - a whole lifestyle where everything came together for absolute joy. It literally supersedes anything that I used to think was "living the life" or what society told me is good living.

So I will consider this as something I may focus on. It could be easier then expected, with the right efforts.

I think the govt takes care of us enough as it is. We as adults should be able to incentivize ourself to do things that are healthy for us.

Absolutely. The government should only exist, according to the US Declaration of Independence, for safety and happiness. However, the way it is structured now having the government pay for walking will actually save significant everyone money, make people much healthier, reduce energy consumption, reduce air/noise pollution, boost productivity and increase individual and overall happiness. So until the government is completely out of paying for healthcare this is an excellent solution for significantly reducing costs and having all the above benefits and more.

Well I guess we have to agree to disagree, no matter how you phrase it to expect the gov’t to pay us to do something we should be wise enough to do for ourselves makes absolutely no sense to me at all.

@robertwillis Rather than government footing the bill for this, I think of how that would be tracked, by whom, and the ensuing cost to taxpayers again, for this.

When my husband was working, his employer sponsored a good health benefit. Smoking cessation classes, twice a year health checks of different types, healthy eating classes, etc. It made for happier employees, the company looked at them as more than a paycheck/body. That might be a better way to go. More personable, easier to oversee.
Ginger

The state governments, and governments around the world, force everyone to compulsory education. Do you believe they should not do this as well? I do. But with healthcare we are stuck with no end in sight of outrageous high costs, gross waste, and worse of all, bad health for most people. If the government paid for people to walk there would be significant immediate and particularly long-term cost savings and all the other health, environment and societal benefits listed above. As someone noted above it could all be tracked on a smart watch and be administered by a simple program.

Also, an interesting question, If governments force compulsory education for the benefit of society why not force everyone to walk?

Personally I just want a government to keep me safe. I'll do the rest for myself.