Wal-Mart’s New Health Plan: Medicaid

In the most recent report from Policy Matters Ohio, Wal-Mart tops the list of Ohio employers with the most employees receiving government health care assistance. According to Wal-Mart, these rankings are “notoriously unreliable” and hard to verify. However, when you consider that Wal-Mart tops the list in every state where the information is available, they start to look reliable. Why do taxpayers have to pick up Wal-Mart’s health care tab?

With high deductibles and coverage limitations, Wal-Mart’s health care is inadequate.
The Wal-Mart average for full-time workers to qualify for benefits is six months, compared to the retail average of three months. Part time employees must wait a full year before receiving benefits. Since the majority of workers do not stay a year, the majority never get health care.

Wal-Mart workers often earn too little to afford health care.
To get a plan with a $700 deductible and $4000 out-of-pocket medical expenses still costs $7000 a year and the average Wal-Mart employee makes approximately 20,000 a year.

Ohio is not unique; Wal-Mart workers in other states must use public assistance programs to meet their health care needs.
In states that have released data on companies with employees receiving state-funded health care, Wal-Mart tops the list. Twenty-four 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, and in those states, Wal-Mart is at the head of the line for public assistance. In all states that have released such data - Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin - Wal-Mart tops the list.

Click here to download "Wal-Mart's New Health Plan: Medicaid."