Lie #3: Wal-Mart Provides Quality Health Care for Its Employees

My goal is to not move everybody to Wal-Mart's health care plan. It's to make sure everybody has health care that needs it. And to make sure if somebody's choosing not to, that there's -- we can try to eliminate the reasons for them not to come onto our plan.” – Linda Dillman [New York Times, 11/13/07]

At Wal-Mart, we are firmly committed to providing comprehensive and affordable health care benefits for our associates.  We will continue to make sure our workforce has access to the health care they need, at prices they can afford. But no one business can solve this country’s health care crisis alone, and we welcome the opportunity to work together as we address these issues.” – [Wal-Mart Health Care Benefits Overview for 2008]

The Truth:

Wal-Mart health insurance coverage lags far behind national average. Nationally, 64% of workers in very large firms (5,000 employees or more) receive their health benefits from their employer. Wal-Mart covers around 50% of its employees. [Employer Health Benefits 2007 Annual Survey, The Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust; Wal-Mart Press Release, 1/22/08]

Wal-Mart fails to cover preventive care. According to Wal-Mart’s most recent health plan, preventive care (except for mammograms, pap smears, and well child visits) is not available to associates. This provision seems to fly in the face of Wal-Mart’s “personal sustainability” program. [Wal-Mart 2008 Associate Benefits Book, Page 71]

Wal-Mart charges extra for ambulance usage and emergency room visits. Wal-Mart charges an additional deductible of $100 for the use of an ambulance, both land and air, as well as $100 for emergency room visits. This reoccurring cost on top of the already high deductible devalues the effectiveness of insurance and punishes employees for severe illness and injury. [Wal-Mart 2008 Associate Benefits Book, Page 58]

Wal-Mart’s new plan excludes spouses of peak-time and part-time truck drivers. This exclusion leaves the spouses of many Wal-Mart employees without a viable option for health insurance outside of public assistance. From the Wal-Mart’s 2008 Associate Benefits Book, “Peak-Time associates and Part-Time Truck Drivers may only cover their Eligible Dependent children and may not cover their spouses. Special rules may apply if you transition from Full-Time to Peak-Time.” [Wal-Mart 2008 Associate Benefits Book, Page 5]

Wal-Mart tops the list of companies with employees receiving state-funded health care in every state that released the data. Twenty-five states have tracked and reported the number of employees and dependants that the largest employers within their borders have enrolled in state-funded health care programs. The states, which have released such data include: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin - Wal-Mart tops the list in all of them. In Arkansas, where Wal-Mart’s own headquarters is located, 3,971 of Wal-Mart’s 45,106 employees are on public assistance. Additionally, two states – Missouri and Oregon – will release reports of their own in 2008.

Wal-Mart sues former employee accident victim for health care plan reimbursement.  Wal-Mart won a lawsuit against a former employee, injured in an accident that left her brain damaged, divorced and penniless, for reimbursement from her medical care [The Morning News (Arkansas), 11/30/07]

Study finds Wal-Mart causes an increase in state spending on Medicaid.  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 and found that Wal-Mart causes an increase in state Medicaid spending by as much as $898 per person. [Business Week, 10/26/05]

Lie #4: Wal-Mart Buys Locally >>