Wal-Mart to Expand Health Plan

NT Slimes ^ | Feb 24, 2006 | MICHAEL BARBARO

[upchuck]

Wal-Mart Stores, facing a raft of state bills that would require it to increase spending on employee health insurance, plans to ease several longstanding - and heavily criticized - restrictions on who is eligible for benefits, the company said yesterday.

The new eligibility rules are intended to increase the number of employees who can participate in the insurance plan, but it is unclear how significant the impact will be because Wal-Mart gave little detailed information about its plans.

[snip]

Even with the expanded plan, Wal-Mart's workers, whose average pay is less than $20,000 a year, will still pay monthly premiums and hefty annual deductibles.

[snip]

Wal-Mart insures fewer than half of its 1.3 million employees in the United States, and it has come under fierce criticism from those who say its benefits are skimpy and result in the cost of health care being shifted to state governments.

In the last two months, the Maryland Legislature has passed a law that would force Wal-Mart to expand its benefits, and a dozen other states, including California, Colorado and Rhode Island, are considering similar bills. Wal-Mart originally planned to announce the new benefit rules later this year, but it rushed the news out this week before the governors' meeting in Washington.

The new eligibility requirements are notable because currently only full-time workers can have health coverage for their children, and part-time workers were required to wait two years before enrolling. Full-time workers must wait six months.

Wal-Mart also said it would expand the use of in-store clinics to treat employees and nonemployees. Such clinics, which the company set up in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Indiana as a test six months ago, are intended to provide routine, nonemergency care for conditions like strep throat or an earache.

[Gabz]

Here we go AGAIN.........

WalMart Ping.........if you want on or off this list just let me know in the thread or in FReepmail.

I'll pick this one up in the monring - I need to call it a night.

[upchuck]

The in-store clinics are a great idea. Bet they do a lot of business.

[SteveMcKing]

'General Motors'

[zip]

Free Enterprise, capitalism, have these terms been outlawed in America. Gestapo tactics by our government, state or local, scare me. Not a rhetorical question, how can the government force an employer to add medical insurance as an employee right?

[headstamp]

"Wal-Mart insures fewer than half of its 1.3 million employees in the United States, and it has come under fierce criticism from those who say its benefits are skimpy and result in the cost of health care being shifted to state governments."

What a ridiculous statement.

I guess it's better to just have them all unemployed and on welfare so the state can pay for EVERYTHING.

If they want to talk about cost shifting, lets talk about Medicare reimbursements.

[sonsofliberty2000]

WV is also jumping on the Maryland bandwagon, and working on a simliar bill.

[Graybeard58]

Wal-Mart insures fewer than half of its 1.3 million employees in the United States

and then we have this, from the same article:

Over all, Wal-Mart said, 75 percent of its workers have some form of health insurance, either through Wal-Mart, a spouse or a previous job.

This would include my wife. She won't be buying insurance from Wal-Mart, no matter how cheap it gets since she is insured with my insurance at no cost to her.

Wal-Mart was "clearly focused on what it can do to look better without it costing them a lot more money".

You may always depend on liberals/the New York Times/unionists/socialists to put a negative spin on anything Wal-Mart does.

None of them will be satisfied until Wal-Mart is completely out of business. It's the ultimate goal of the Wal-Mart haters.

The same groups that hate American success in foreign policy, who call our President a "terrorist" who are actually terrorist supporters themselves are the groups that want to see Wal-Mart fail. It is the most successful business on earth and they can't stand that.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"None of them will be satisfied until Wal-Mart is completely out of business. It's the ultimate goal of the Wal-Mart haters.

The same groups that hate American success in foreign policy, who call our President a "terrorist" who are actually terrorist supporters themselves are the groups that want to see Wal-Mart fail. It is the most successful business on earth and they can't stand that."

Can't add much to that. Did you read my post yesterday about leaving Cow Town to shop in a rather large city earlier this week? They have a 4-way stop and on each corner is a Wal-Mart, a Shopko, a Target and a KMart. SAME products at EACH store, just packaged and priced a bit differently, yet Wal-Mart suffers these fools every day. Mind-boggling!

Don't forget how Wal-Mart stands up to the Unions thugs, too. That's a very sore sticking point for socialists. :)