In a major break with most other large companies, Wal-Mart said Tuesday in a letter to President Barack Obama that it supports a move to mandate health insurance coverage by employers.
"We are for an employer mandate which is fair and broad in its coverage," said the letter, signed by Wal-Mart Chief Executive Mike Duke. Also signing were two prominent liberals: Andy Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, and with John Podesta, former Bill Clinton chief of staff and head of the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank.
The move "flabbergasted" the National Retailer's Federation, according to the Wall Street Journal.
"We have been one of the foremost opponents to employer mandate," Neil Trautwein, a vice president of the industry group is quoted as saying. "We are surprised and disappointed by Wal-Mart's choice to embrace an employer mandate in exchange for a promise of cost savings."
He added that an employer mandate for insurance is "the single most destructive thing you could do to the health-care system shy of a single-payer system" and "would quite possibly cut off the economic recovery we all desperately need," he said.
Wal-Mart, however, doesn't cover all its employees presently.
-John Byrne
WAL-MART are FOR this? WOW! I can't believe it. (are we should they said "for it" and "not for it"?)
After seeing Wal-Mart: The HIgh Cost Of Low Prices I've hated them to the bone. This seems like they think April fools day is July 1st..
Wal-Mart is for this because they want to rape the drug companies like they do all their other suppliers. With a gigantic employee block they can get Canadian style prices and bill the insurance company for them, and all their employees, along with millions of others will be cashing in at Wal-Mart pharmacies.
They know a national plan is inevitable, they're simply making sure they're at the front of the line with their hand out
Typical borderline criminal, and certainly monopolistic behavior by WM
After hearing this, I think I'm having a heart attack. Please drive me to MalWart so I can get my medicine.
i dont believe it must be catch
maybe someone at walmart is a manchurian candidate
It will drive out of business a lot of their competition. They'll ensure no employee works more than 31 hrs a week so they don't have to pay to cover them, which is basically what they are doing currently, anyway. Walmart sucks.
@ Sacha
The catch is that this is a cost saving move for Walmart. Their finance department figured out that insuring everyone will somehow, in the long term, lead to less money spent on the employees. They have to be getting a deal on generics, or through some kind of cost-sharing deal with the providers.This might also parley into their own providership initiatives.
The beauty of the whole thing is that it can be spun as altruism.
Read this and you can understand why wal mart takes this position!
Despite Wal-Mart's mammoth profits, the company actually burdens taxpayers with its workers' health care costs. In a disturbing nationwide trend, more state studies are revealing that Wal-Mart employees are the top recipients of taxpayer-paid health care. The scope of this corporate failure is massive: Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the United States, with over 1.3 million associates, yet they fail to give health insurance to 54 percent of its employees.
"So here's how it works: Wal-Mart offers insurance, but aggressively shifts the cost onto its employees. The low-wage workers then pass up the unaffordable coverage and turn to the states. If this isn't exactly company policy, it is at least company philosophy. CEO Lee Scott, at the company's recent ''summit'' for the media, even described it. He said some state health programs are 'so lucrative that, in fact, it's hard to be competitive with them and certainly extraordinarily expensive to be competitive with them.'"
Wal-Mart and Health Care
In 2004, Wal-Mart spent $1.5 billion on its health insurance. This amounts to an employer contribution of around only $0.77 an hour per employee. This accounts for approximately a half-percent of Wal-Mart's $285 billion in sales in 2004. [Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart Internal Memo, 2005, Wal-Mart Annual Report, 2005].
Wal-Mart's Health Care Plan Fails to Cover Over 775,000 Employees
Wal-Mart reported in January 2006 that its health insurance only covers 43% of their employees. Wal-Mart has approximately 1.39 million US employees.
Wal-Mart's Health Insurance Falls Far Short of Other Large Companies
On average for 2005, large companies (200 or more workers) cover approximately 66% of their employees. If Wal-Mart was to reach the average coverage rate, Wal-Mart should be covering an additional 318,000 employees (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005)
Wal-Mart's Health Care Eligibility is Restrictive
Part-timers—anybody below 34 hours a week — must wait 1 year before they can enroll. Moreover, spouses of part-time employees are ineligible for family health care coverage for 2006.
Full-time hourly employees must wait 180 days (approximately 6 months) before being able to enroll in Wal-Mart's health insurance plan. Managers have no waiting period. [Wal-Mart 2006 Associate Guide]
All of Wal-Mart's Health Plans Are Too Costly for Its Workers to Use
Since the average full-time Wal-Mart employee earned $17,114 in 2005, he or she would have to spend between 7 and 25 percent of his or her income just to cover the premiums and medical deductibles, if electing for single coverage. [Wal-Mart 2006 Associate Guide and UFCW analysis]
The average full-time employee electing for family coverage would have to spend between 22 and 40 percent of his or her income just to cover the premiums and medical deductibles. These costs do not include other health-related expenses such as medical co-pays, prescription coverage, emergency room deductibles, and ambulance deductibles. [Wal-Mart 2006 Associate Guide and UFCW Analysis].
Wal-Mart trumps the affordability of its new health care plan. According to Wal-Mart, "In January [2006], ...Coverage will be available for as little as $22 per month for individuals" [www.walmartfacts.com]
What Wal-Mart's website leaves out: Coverage is affordable, but using it will bankrupt many employees. Wal-Mart's most affordable plan for 2006 includes a $1,000 deductible for single coverage and a $3,000 deductible for family coverage ($1,000 deductible per person covered up to $3,000). [Wal-Mart 2006 Associate Guide]
Wal-Mart Admits Public Health Care is a "Better Value"
President and CEO Lee Scott said in 2005, "In some of our states, the public program may actually be a better value - with relatively high income limits to qualify, and low premiums." [Transcript Lee Scott Speech 4/5/05]
Wal-Mart's Health Care is Getting Costlier
Between 2000-2005, the cost of premiums rose 169 percent for single coverage and 117 percent for family coverage. [UFCW analysis of annual Wal-Mart Associate Guides]. In comparison, premiums for family coverage in the U.S. have increased only by 59%, from 2000-2005. [Employer Health Benefits: 2004 Annual Survey, Kaiser Family Foundation & Health Research and Educational Trust, 2004]
In 2004, Wal-Mart employees, in total, paid approximately 41% of the plan costs [Wal-Mart IRS 5500 Filings, 2005]. Nationally for 2004 on average employees paid for only 16% of single coverage costs and 28% of family coverage costs [Kaiser Family Foundation, 2005].
When offering health care costs you almost nothing, of course you can be for it!
This is just another way in which Wally Mart will be killing off every other business in any town they currently infest. Those that have managed to survive in their wake will have to shell out so much for insurance that they too will go out of business. Wally Mart, because of their size and known sleazy tactics will be spending far less per employee and in fact, still sticking the public sector with the bill.
Anything Wally Mart wants is automatically suspect in my eyes. I won't darken their door. EVER.
WALMART's customers are almost exclusively NAFTA Refugees.
(they are selling shit back to the people whose jobs they stole!)
If walmart says the sky is blue...they are lying.
and remember Hillary Clinton sat on their board of directors prior to the NAFTA sodomy.
Rick is right. Don't believe the hype. I know people who work at Wal-Mart and they do indeed cut the hours of employee below 31 hours, thus making them part-time and unqualified for health insurance. I absolutely despise Wal-Mart and I encourage people to stop shopping there.
Walmart is a parasite company. They are not out for the best interests of anyone except their owners. Don't be fooled by this bullshit. Fuck Walmart.
I can see it now. Businesses will be able to sign up for bargain-basement Sam's Care Rewards Employer Wealthcare (also known as SCREW). Business owners get Grade AAA coverage for the top level managers, and FFFFF+ basic for the grunts. Of course, the grunts will be able to opt-in for Premium Care at a platinum price...subject to change at will depending on the profits of Wal-Mart. Free Sam's Club Membership with sign-up!
Great Idea! That way if you quit your job or get fired you'll be sentenced to death if you get sick. Plus you can bet that it will only be for full timers, and in the states that already mandate employer benefits for full timers MallWart has just hired all part time employees.Talk about Corporate Feudalism, that's just one step away from blinding bad employees with a hot iron. Next MallWart will want to brand their employees to identify their property. If MallWart is for it, it is good for China and the US Robber Barrons and bad for America. Why do they hate American workers?
I wouldn't trust Wal-Mart--AKA---China-Mart on this any farther than I can coin toss its CEO. This company is NOT good for America.
I'd rather get employers OUT of the health insurance business. They can then PAY their employees a decent wage and the employees can then have insurance through a public option or buy their own private policy if they have more money than sense.
Wal Mart is for this because it will drive whatever small businesses there are left in this country out of business. Makes perfect sense.
Okay, who are you and what have you done with Mike Duke??!!
I suspect there is more to this than Duke is willing to elaborate on , like what's in it for Wal-Mart ...
Remember, if it looks to good to be true ...
Let us get employers out of the healthcare business and into their own business full time. This current system only makes the USA un competitive and messes up our personal healthcare.
So many posters here got it right. Only the big companies can cope with the government paper-work. I can't believe all the crap that is dumped on business's. Next, I can't believe than ANY business owner would be opposed to bringing health care into the "public good" fold, along with firefighting and police.
My experience starting and running a business was that, sure I was busy, I was happy to pay someone a good wage, but the thought of hiring that first employee, with all the crap that went along with it... I just continued to work more. It wasn't the AMOUNT of tax or workman's comp so much as it was tracking it.
All the current "rules" help the big companies and crap on the little ones.
This is good news, and Obama needs to be bold. As Financial Times columnist Clive Crook noted on June 30, 2009, Obama is choosing to be "weak," rather than a strong president.
Obama needs to include an employer mandate, a public option (both federal and state), encourage preventive care reimbursement, move people into cheaper generic drugs (including the Medicare Drug Bill that Republicans passed, banning the government from bargaining on prescription drug prices), plus find common-sense (not sneaking) malpractice insurance to lower costs for doctors when the issue is not malice, or gross negligence, but just an accident, which yes, can happen.
The way he can do this is let Gates and the U.S. Military handle and mess up overseas (just like they are doing now, and he isn't stopping them), and campaign all around the country for health care reform. 2) You must attack the opposition, because almost all politicians are self-interested first, and want their perks and reelection, rather than ideological.
Otherwise . . . social inertia, commercial attacks ads, and dumb Congressional politicians on both sides all together will make "health care reform" more a slogan than a change.
The only reason Walmart is changing their tune on this subject is that they must have unfairly pre-positioned themselves to profit from this healthcare reform somehow. Perhaps they have struck a deal with some dark alley, sleazy HMO vampire that will do its damndest to deny benefits to its members in return for a "competitive contract".
There should be no employer-mandated health insurance at all. There should be no employer-offered health insurance to begin with. Tying healthcare to your job is just another engineered method of keeping the minions enslaved to their jobs and employers. These two entities must be separated once and for all. It is bankrupting companies and people.
In addition, private for-profit health insurance must be slowly eliminated. There are industries where for-profit enterprise is appropriate. Healthcare is NOT one of those industries. Anyone who thinks so is fundamentally immoral.
If they can get insurance "mandated", it will crush the remaining few mom-n-pop outfits that compete with Wal-Mart in smaller towns (they keep Wal-Martout on purpose, if they can).. Once those stores cave, Wal-Mart will be welcomed with open arms to places currently surviving without them.
And rick@5 is right, they will make sure the law is written in such a way that they can manage to avoid insuring many of those they don't insure already.
The only way to make sure everyone gets medical coverage is to reduce overall cost of insurance while also getting rid of insurance.. that is, single payer while still having employers pay into the system (less than they do now, and based on number of employees or gross receipts/profits). Employees who pay into insurance now will have their contributions reduced and those not paying will start paying .. like we do with Social Security.
The amount of money going into the hands of the "heads of insurance companies" is disgusting, all that money could be SAVED overall simply by removing those people from the process.
This is a trick to try to keep insurance companies in business, because where else will employers get the insurance coverage for their workers? Don't trust it, it's yet another scam by corporate greedheads.
no surprise here ... the mandate would put all their small-fry competitors out of business and leave Walmart with their same crappy wages and so-called benefits.
Of course Wal-Mart is going to push this, aren't they? Anything to undermine the national health care initiative, and keep things exactly as they are, using for-profit insurance companies. In fact, don't be surprised if Wal-Mart actually goes into the health insurance business. A cheap, substandard version, that is.
They are already pedaling substandard medications - their so-called public service of offerng $4.00 prescriptions.
http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/feature/ranbaxy/
Wal-Mart has no honor. If you enjoy "low prices every day", remember that those low prices are a result of the rampant exploitation of very poor people in third-world countries.