Wal-Mart Looking To Influence Health Care Debate

Wal-Mart’s health care issues obviously go back quite some time. Nationally, 64% of workers in very large firms (5,000 employees or more) receive their health benefits from their employer. And Wal-Mart? Wal-Mart typically covers only 50% of its employees. Twenty-five states have tracked and reported the number of employees and dependents that the largest employers within their borders have enrolled in state-funded health care programs. Where does Wal-Mart rank in those states? Across the board Wal-Mart is at the head of the line for public assistance.

Despite these negatives, Politico says Wal-Mart is looking to throw its economic might into the health care ring:

Wal-Mart is ramping up its Washington activity to push for comprehensive health care reform, and the world’s largest retailer says it is ready to use its economic muscle to get out in front and influence the discussion.

That’s probably a good thing, as anything but the status quo would be a positive development. And we know Wal-Mart and its employees are familiar with using public health care. Michael Hicks, an economist at the Air Force Institute of Technology at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, conducted a study analyzing state Medicaid data from 1978 to 2003 - he found that Wal-Mart causes an increase in state Medicaid spending by as much as $898 per person. That sounds extreme, yet consider the example from Wal-Mart’s home state of Arkansas, where 3,971 of Wal-Mart’s 45,106 employees are on public assistance. That’s basically one in eleven employees taking advantage of public assistance, so no wonder the costs to taxpayers are high.

Still, Politico argues that Wal-Mart has made some gains recently - including offering a broader range of lower-cost insurance options and pushing for electronic health records - and notes that SEIU could be moving towards cautiously optimistic status:

“As the largest private corporation, they do have the ability to set a standard to providing good jobs with good health care,” said SEIU spokeswoman Lori Lodes. “Right now they are at the table, and they have a very strong commitment to reforming our health care system.”

Whether the reform Wal-Mart ultimately seeks ends up being a positive will remain a HUGE question mark for a while. In the meantime, Wal-Mart has announced that only 3 percent of the company’s employees are now on state assistance. So, only about 45 THOUSAND employees nationwide. So, you know...just a few.

Wal-Mart lends muscle to health reform [Politico]

Wal-Mart is ramping up its Washington activity to push for comprehensive health care reform, and the world’s largest retailer says it is ready to use its economic muscle to get out in front and influence the discussion.

“We’re willing to take a stand independently and not just do it through our associations,” said Linda Dillman, the retail giant’s executive vice president of benefits, who was in town last week with a posse of Wal-Mart employees bending ears on Capitol Hill.

Long a target of complaints from labor, environmental and health care activists, Wal-Mart has been trying to rehabilitate its reputation in recent years by going green in its stores and becoming more employee-friendly. For instance, the company has begun offering employees a broader range of low-cost insurance options and, as part of its health care reform campaign, is pushing for greater use of electronic medical records — and helping doctors pay for the upgrade.

The company began its congressional outreach last summer with regular Washington visits, and its officials and employees have dropped in on about 75 lawmakers’ offices since then. Chief Executive Mike Duke has talked with both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, according to Dillman. And last week, Dillman gave a keynote speech to the National Business Group on Health, which represents large employers in the health care debate.

To introduce themselves to policymakers, Wal-Mart executives explain how the company has provided better health care to its 1.4 million employees by offering plans that cost between $5 and $200 per month and provide a range of coverage. The expanded options boosted by 10 percent the number of employees enrolled, Dillman said, and now a little over half of Wal-Mart’s employees are covered.

“We’re doing our share to offer a good plan, an inexpensive plan to our associates so they’ll take that option,” she said.

Even the Service Employees International Union, which has had sharp differences with Wal-Mart in the past, has nice things to say. 

“As the largest private corporation, they do have the ability to set a standard to providing good jobs with good health care,” said SEIU spokeswoman Lori Lodes. “Right now they are at the table, and they have a very strong commitment to reforming our health care system.”

Wal-Mart and SEIU are partners in a coalition of business and labor groups pushing for better health care. 

Wal-Mart has been criticized in the past because many of its employees and their families were uninsured or covered by government-provided health insurance. But Dillman said only 3 percent of the company’s employees are now on state assistance.

The company is also pushing for increased use of electronic medical records. Wal-Mart recently announced it would offer a health information technology package to doctors for $25,000 — about half the price of technology now on the market — through its Sam’s Club warehouses. The move comes on the heels of the $19 billion Congress approved in the stimulus bill to help doctors move to electronic records.

Read the rest of the article here.

Posted by Corey Himrod on Tuesday, March 17, 2009

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