Wal-Mart’s New Health Plan: Medicaid

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again! Wal*Mart, get your nasty hands out of my pocket! Is there a petition anywhere a person can sign to let our elected officials know that we don’t want to fund Wal*Mart’s brand of commerce and expansion?

Approved: Low-wage parents with no insurance, unaware of government benefits to help their kids, raising malnourished children whose only health-care is from an inattentive, overworked E.R. intern.

Disapproved: Low-wage parents with health insurance, being given help taking advantage of government benefits they legitimately qualify for, raising healthy kids who see a doctor whenever they’re sick and even for preventative care, if the parents work for Wal-Mart.

Folks, the local Wal-Mart is not the career choice of someone whose other options include VP of a Fortune 500 company. It is an option for those who otherwise would be paid the same or less to work for a small business that, regardless of how much their profit, will likely claim poverty when asked to provide insurance options, and will likely factually claim ignorance when it comes to help with government programs.

You don’t have a problem with the unseen poor. Only those who work at Wal-Mart.

P.S. Prove me wrong. Show me where mom-and-pops pay more, offer better (if any) health insurance, and help those who qualify for government benefits.

Raybury:
Didn’t your mom teach you that two wrongs don’t make a right?

Walmart can afford to provide better benefits to its employees, they just chose to give the money to the Walton family instead so that the can add it to their estimated $110 billion in accumulated wealth.

If marginal small businesses can’t afford to provide their workers with health care then this just shows the need for universal coverage. You can study the MA plan which has provisions for small firms, if you want to learn something instead of just posting snide remarks.

raybury in Alexandria, VA
You seem to think this is an old phenominon. It’s not! This is part of Wal*Mart’s business plan. What they have been effectivly doing is farming out this concept to other companies and turning it into the norm. I think I can speak for a large part of the Anti_Wal*Mart groups when I say “This cannot stand!” This is not and should not be the norm. Retail Jobs have traditionally paid workers benifits. It has only been Wal*Marts aggesive anti-small business and anti competitive practices that have dumped these hundreds of thousands of people into “the system”. This puts a tremendous strain on the system and the people who take it on the chin are as you put it “the unseen poor”. The people who really need it, as well as the U.S. Tax Payers! Sorry, Wal*Mart has created this mess and has made a lot of money doing it. As far as other “Mom and Pop’s” I’ve worked for more than one, and untill arround The year 2000 (when I moved on to a new career) even our stock people had insurance! Nope, not buying it, not paying for it! It kills me how many people out there think everything should be free, untill they get their pay cut. Wake up! You are Next.

raybury in Alexandria, VA
AND Another thing!
“Folks, the local Wal-Mart is not the career choice of someone whose other options include VP of a Fortune 500 company. It is an option for those who otherwise would be paid the same or less to work for a small business that, regardless of how much their profit, will likely claim poverty when asked to provide insurance options, and will likely factually claim ignorance when it comes to help with government programs. “

Thanks to Wal*Mart and their ilk. You’ve given two basic options “VP of a Fortune 500 company.” and Working for Wal*Mart (or a clone). Do you think American business history started in the last 8 years? How old are you?

Get a Clue and Get Off Glue!

A few years ago approximately 630,000 Wal-Mart employees had no health coverage. This was a figure I remember reading from one of my books about Wal-Mart. Now if these folks are uninsured by Wal-Mart--then WHO IS INSURING THEM? I will say it again and again, Wal-Mart who makes BILLIONS IN PROFITS EVERY YEAR CAN WELL AFFORD TO INSURE THEIR EMPLOYEES. They just chose not to.
You can argue all you want about how being insured is a privilage not a right, etc etc. But we are talking about a company that CAN EASILY AFFORD TO DO THIS.
And why doesn’t Wal-Mart pay insurance for their employees? Because they can make more money IF THEY DON’T.
When Wal-Mart wanted to come to my village they sent out slick and I mean slick flyers to everyone living here. But us anti Wal-Mart’ers weren’t fooled. They promised a few hundred jobs, mentioned the taxes they would be paying, etc. But we all knew they would create jobs with only minimuim wage and no benefits. Also they would in turn empty our business district so we would end up with no place left to shop but Wal-Mart. And when they discovered there wasn’t millions of dollars to be had from us Adirondackers, they would also be gone.
Wal-Mart has got to get the award for being one of the sleeziest and slickest companies around. And if they can cheat someone so they can make more money they won’t hesitate to do it.
I for one think it is high time that Wal-Mart started paying their own bills and stopped expecting America taxpayers to do it for them!

I worked for a handful of department stores between 20 and 10 years ago, before Walmart was a significant presence in the Philadelphia area, and I can confirm that part-timers were treated like crap, with no hope of benefits, not after 6 months, not ever. I’m talking stores like Macy’s, which I tried to help unionize. Retail sucks, at small businesses often more so. None of this is new; you can argue that WM exacerbates it, but you are cutting your argument short if you claim retail used to be a utopia. I stand by my comment above and invite actual evidence to counter it.

By the way, the list is all private employers. I’d be willing to guess that a higher number of government workers qualify for, and probably receive, some form of government aid for those in need. No surprise as the government employs more Americans than any private employer, even WM, just as WM employs more than Target, which is therefore lower on the list. At some pay level, with some number of dependents, no matter who you work for you may be eligible for the taxpayer-funded safety net. You folks seem to merely be arguing that companies or the government should be blamed for making sure employees take advantage of what they are entitled too.

Raybury: I don’t believe retail was ever a utopia. From my understanding retail is one of the LOWEST paying jobs around. And I don’t doubt it. But lets look at a huge difference.
Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. Granted, they did start out with one store, but look at where they are now. Wal-Mart can be found almost anywhere. But we need to note a difference between Wal-Mart and typical retail.
It is my understanding that Wal-Mart makes $21,000 in profits every minute, that’s how big they have become! (If I remember correctly that is the figure and how long it takes them.)
Can anyone out there tell me of ANY OTHER RETAILER who makes that kind of profit in such a short time?
When you make that kind of profit it becomes obvious that you can do things like pay your employees more and give them ALL health care.
Naturally, if you do these things you will be making less profit. But who made you this profit to begin with? Has anyone lately seen Lee Scott working the cash registers in one of his stores? Has he been seen stocking shelves, or driving a Wal-Mart delivery truck? Anyone? And how about other Wal-Mart executives. Anyone seen them doing these things either? No?
Wal-Mart seems to have FORGOTTEN who has made them this money in the first place! If all their employees were to SUDDENLY go on strike where would Wal-mart’s profts be then?
Now compare these figures with a local independent retailer. Do you think THEY make $21,000 in profits every minute? Hardly! We must remember that if we compare independent retailers to Wal-Mart we are comparing apples to oranges. Wal-Mart can steam roll over any independent retailer in a moment and they do it all the time.
Macy’s on the other hand is NOT a small independent retailer. But, no, they are NOT as big as Wal-Mart. Should they have paid their employees more? Absolutely!! Apparently, they to have forgotten who has made them money in the first place.
Retail was never a utopia. When you get into it you do it for reasons other than pay--because you won’t make much. But it is high time Wal-Mart started doing right by the very folks who have made them this money in the first place. Without their thousands of employees, Wal-Mart would be just one local independent retailer.
And yes, you should have made more money working for Macy’s. If you were trying to unionize it--that means simply you weren’t happy.

if you were downsized, and forced to work for walmart because there were no other jobs, you know how bad it is.
if you are not fortunate enough to be a single mother, you get no hlep from this state re medical issues. you ignore them.
if your store closed during fay, at first we were told if we did not work a sceduled shift because the store was closed, we would get 4 hours pay. then we were told it only applied to those who had vacation time they could use.
i certainly would not be here if i had a choice. i can barely make my mortgage payments on this part time only work. i had no idea that walmart was as bad as i’ve read until i had to work here.
this is not coming from a store level. most of the mgt here are good people. this is coming from the top execs making millions a year.
employees are just another commodity to this company. they embrace the economic downturn because it increases sales. they embrace the high unemployment because it draws desperate workers with a good work ethic.
mccain wants to keep this going.

jane doe in florida
Wal*Mart’s old plan was to hire as many people as they could, pick out candidates for management positions and then harrass the left over people to quit before 6 months or before they qualified for benifits. Now that they have had to slow their expansion, they have taken things a step further by putting newr hires on part time only. They can fire you anytime for any reason. They love to mess with peoples work scedules and basically keep them in such a state of confusion that they are in a constant state of panic. Then they have the scary people to make sure you don’t put the pieces together. Right to work laws were practically written by Wal*Marts board of directors and should be abolished or re-writen. If you want thing to improve let your elected officials know that “Right to Work” is bait and switch plain and simple. Everything in your post rings with the truth. Don’t let them rob you of your dignity, it’s the nature of the beast.

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My daughter (who is the spouse of a WalMart employee) recently had premature twins to the tune of $156,000 (just for the hospital bill).  WalMart paid $150,000 (WOW!) of this bill and they only pay $80 a month for their insurance at WalMart.  My son-in-law was handed the book upon employment and told to pick whatever health care plan he wanted starting at $13 a month (obviously a much higher deductible for the lower amounts, but certainly not $150,000!).  These benefits obviously started six months after his employment, but he was aware of this. 
There are some things he doesn’t like about WalMart (as many of us feel with our employers), but I am certain that if they had not had insurance through WM then they would be on the street.  $80 a month seems like a lot of money to someone who doesn’t make much, but declaring bankruptcy for $150,000 would be worse!
I think that the six-month wait for the employees to have health insurance because that way you can weed out those who just took the job because they know they will need an expensive surgery soon. People shouldn’t take advantage of anybody, even large companies such as WM.
PS I don’t have health insurance where I work (a non-profit) but my husband has insurance offered to him through his company.  But, we pay monthly for it! His company could do it, but then they probably wouldn’t be around in ten years because of the high cost.  Health care costs so much now, we can’t expect the companies to pay for all of it!

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