Wal-Mart cuts health benefits for some part-timers

[Professor Peabody]

Oct 7, 11:42 AM EDT

Wal-Mart cuts health benefits for some part-timers

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
AP Retail Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to eliminate health insurance coverage for some of its part-time U.S. employees in a move aimed at controlling rising health care costs of the nation's largest private employer.

Starting Jan. 1, Wal-Mart told The Associated Press that it will no longer offer health insurance to employees who work less than an average of 30 hours a week. The move, which would affect 30,000 employees, follows similar decisions by Target, Home Depot and others to eliminate health insurance benefits for part-time employees.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_WAL_MART_HEALTH_CARE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-10-07-10-33-49

Nobody saw that one coming....:rollseyes: As expected employers will be dumping employees into the exchanges. As soon as one employer does in an industry, the rest will fall like dominoes. It was as inevitable as the tide. Wal-Mart like all other publicly traded companies have a fiduciary duty to their investors to make them as much money as humanly possible. BTW, Union Pension funds invest in the very same companies to make money enough to keep the pension benefits flowing.

Open enrollment starts next month so any companies dropping employer sponsored coverage will be notifying employees between now and election day. Obama Care passed Congress without a single Republican vote, so if your or your spouse health coverage gets dropped there is NO ONE else to blame BUT the Democrats. Vote them OUT of Washington next month.

[Captain Obvious]

With the dramatically increasing cost of covering employees (now, wait until premiums are risk-adjusted once losses start to mount with the higher percentage of older people who pay for their coverage are offset by the lower percentage of low-utilization younger people who aren't paying for their coverage), the only way employers can cut costs is reduce the amount of employee levels that earn benefits (ie: full-time to part-time for example) along with reducing coverage to those employees who earn it.

That's going to be the trend now for the near future in my estimation. I see it happening now in the news and on the street.

[Common Sense]

Walmart has always used the govt to subsidize it's employees...

[Redrose]

Opponents to the ACA predicted this would happen and were called all sorts of names. The ACA is a job killer. Those losing benefits will now go into the exchanges for their MANDATORY healthcare coverage.
A great many will go into MEDICAID. The end result is just what the ACA's creators wanted, corraling people into the ACA or government aid. Other major companies will follow suit.

We will see more and more workers in part time jobs, fewer company paid benefits, higher premiums, poorer coverage with limited choices. Not what we were promised by Obama.

[Common Sense]

Yeah, they only made $128 billion last year. Better cut some costs!

Scumbags...

[Matty]

Told ya so! :)

[Professor Peabody]

Opponents to the ACA predicted this would happen and were called all sorts of names. The ACA is a job killer. Those losing benefits will now go into the exchanges for their MANDATORY healthcare coverage.
A great many will go into MEDICAID. The end result is just what the ACA's creators wanted, corraling people into the ACA or government aid. Other major companies will follow suit.

We will see more and more workers in part time jobs, fewer company paid benefits, higher premiums, poorer coverage with limited choices. Not what we were promised by Obama.

Employers dropping coverage for thousands of spouses over ObamaCare costs
(http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/21/employers-dropping-coverage-for-thousands-spouses-over-obamacare-costs/)
U.P.S. to End Health Benefits for Spouses of Some Workers (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/business/ups-to-end-health-benefits-for-spouses-of-some-workers.html)

Nobody saw that coming did they? :rollseyes:

[texan]

Yes but you can still keep your insurance if you like it right? Period? I know that is corrrect I was promised that we could so I am not worried.

[Chris]

Yeah, they only made $128 billion last year. Better cut some costs!

Scumbags...


What, around a 2% profit margin, not much at all.

[hanger4]

Yeah, they only made $128 billion last year. Better cut some costs!

Scumbags...

Would that 128bil be net or gross Common Sense ??

[hanger4]

Yeah, they only made $128 billion last year. Better cut some costs!

Scumbags...

Would that 128bil be net or gross Common Sense ??

[midcan5]

Unless you are poor, which in America today may be the case, shopping in Walmart is immoral. The company collects 13 billion dollars in food stamps as its own workers are eligible for food stamps. It has one of the highest turnover rates in workers, and it makes everyone part-time so they don't have to provide benefits. At Thanksgiving they collected for their own employees. When a company feels the need to show normal people in an ad for the store, to demonstrate in some twisted way that walmart is a normal place to shop, something is wrong.

http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/

WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price (http://www.walmartmovie.com/)
Value and Values at Wal-Mart -- Behind That Implacable Smiley Face (http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0825-22.htm)
As Union Nears Win, Wal-Mart Closes Store (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0210-13.htm)
Majority Says Wal-Mart Bad for America: Poll (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1202-01.htm)
Wal-Mart Subsidy Watch - brought to you by Good Jobs First (http://www.walmartsubsidywatch.org/)
Amazon.com: The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy (9780143038788): Charles Fishman: Books (http://www.amazon.com/Wal-Mart-Effect-Powerful-Works---Transforming/dp/0143038788/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8)

[Chris]

Unless you are poor, which in America today may be the case, shopping in Walmart is immoral. The company collects 13 billion dollars in food stamps as its own workers are eligible for food stamps. It has one of the highest turnover rates in workers, and it makes everyone part-time so they don't have to provide benefits. At Thanksgiving they collected for their own employees. When a company feels the need to show normal people in an ad for the store, to demonstrate in some twisted way that walmart is a normal place to shop, something is wrong.

http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/

WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price (http://www.walmartmovie.com/)
Value and Values at Wal-Mart -- Behind That Implacable Smiley Face (http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0825-22.htm)
As Union Nears Win, Wal-Mart Closes Store (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0210-13.htm)
Majority Says Wal-Mart Bad for America: Poll (http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1202-01.htm)
Wal-Mart Subsidy Watch - brought to you by Good Jobs First (http://www.walmartsubsidywatch.org/)
Amazon.com: The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works--and How It's Transforming the American Economy (9780143038788): Charles Fishman: Books (http://www.amazon.com/Wal-Mart-Effect-Powerful-Works---Transforming/dp/0143038788/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8)



So explain the immorality, mid, please.

[Peter1469]

Don't shop there. I don't.

[Redrose]

Yeah, they only made $128 billion last year. Better cut some costs!

Scumbags...


I agree with you. Look at Walmart, they got where they are by being a very saavy business, not by wasting money and making bad decisions. The dolts who created the ACA apparently never took a business course or studied economics. They assumed major businesses were going to allow their bottom line to be decimated by the oppressive, crippling mandates of the ACA. No way. These mega corps sliced and diced their payroll and bennies to keep their profit margin stable.

My nephew had to do the same thing. He's a doctor and had to close two offices, layoff some and cut hours. Had he not, he would have lost his entire practice because of the heavy financial burden the ACA placed on him.

So in the end it's us, the American taxpayer who gets the shaft.

[texan]

When will people figure out that every company is doing this, thanks Obama.

Your Obamacare at work. All the libs said "this will never happen!"

Of course they said my rates would go down and they are up. They also said everyone could keep their policy and doctor but they can't.

[Redrose]

Pelosi, Reid, Obama and progressive left were in a win/win situation....they thought.

If Obamacare succeeded they came out as heros, if it failed, as it is doing, it's because of the GOP.

Nothing about it turned out to be true, but some still think it's a good thing. You can't fix stupid.

[sachem]

Pelosi, Reid, Obama and progressive left were in a win/win situation....they thought.

If Obamacare succeeded they came out as heros, if it failed, as it is doing, it's because of the GOP.

Nothing about it turned out to be true, but some still think it's a good thing. You can't fix stupid.Off topic, but how is your grand daughter doing?

[Professor Peabody]

Yes but you can still keep your insurance if you like it right? Period? I know that is corrrect I was promised that we could so I am not worried.

SEN. HARRY REID (D-Nev.): “In fact, one of our core principles is that if you like the health care you have, you can keep it.” (Sen. Reid, Congressional Record, S.8642, 8/3/09)

SEN. RICHARD DURBIN: “We believe — and we stand by this — if you like your current health insurance plan, you will be able to keep it, plain and simple, straightforward.” (Sen. Durbin, Congressional Record, S.6401, 6/10/09)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): “If you like your insurance, you keep it.” (U.S. Senate, Finance Committee, Bill Mark-Up, 9/29/09)

SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D-Wash.): “Again, if you like what you have, you will be able to keep it. Let me say this again: If you like what you have, when our legislation is passed and signed by the President, you will be able to keep it.” (Sen. Murray, Congressional Record, S.6400, 6/10/09)

SEN. MAX BAUCUS (D-Mont.): “That is why one of the central promises of health care reform has been and is: If you like what you have, you can keep it. That is critically important. If a person has a plan, and he or she likes it, he or she can keep it.” (Sen. Baucus, Congressional Record, S.7676, 9/29/10)

SEN. TOM HARKIN (D-Iowa): “One of the things we put in the health care bill when we designed it was the protection for consumers to keep the plan they have if they like it; thus, the term ‘grandfathered plans.’ If you have a plan you like — existing policies — you can keep them. … we said, if you like a plan, you get to keep it, and you can grandfather it in.” (Sen. Harkin, Congressional Record, S.7675-6, 9/29/10)

THEN-REP. TAMMY BALDWIN (D-Wis.): “Under the bill, if you like the insurance you have now, you may keep it and it will improve.” (Rep. Baldwin, Press Release, 3/18/10)

SEN. MARK BEGICH (D-Alaska): “If you got a doctor now, you got a medical professional you want, you get to keep that. If you have an insurance program or a health care policy you want of ideas, make sure you keep it. That you can keep who you want.” (Sen. Begich, Townhall Event, 7/27/09)

SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-Colo.): “We should begin with a basic principle: if you have coverage and you like it, you can keep it. If you have your doctor, and you like him or her, you should be able to keep them as well. We will not take that choice away from you.” (Sen. Bennet, Press Release, 6/11/09)

SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D-Calif.): “So we want people to be able to keep the health care they have. And the answer to that is choice of plans. And in the exchange, we're going to have lots of different plans, and people will be able to keep the health care coverage they need and they want.” (Sen. Boxer, Press Release, 2/8/11)

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-Ohio): “Our bill says if you have health insurance and you like it, you can keep it…”(Sen. Brown, Congressional Record, S.12612, 12/7/09)

SEN. BEN CARDIN (D-Md.): “For the people of Maryland, this bill will provide a rational way in which they can maintain their existing coverage…” (Sen. Cardin, Congressional Record, S.13798, 12/23/09)

SEN. BOB CASEY (D-Pa.): “I also believe this legislation and the bill we are going to send to President Obama this fall will also have secure choices. If you like what you have, you like the plan you have, you can keep it. It is not going to change.” (Sen. Casey, Congressional Record, S.8070, 7/24/09)

SEN. KAY HAGAN (D-N.C.): ‘People who have insurance they're happy with can keep it’ “We need to support the private insurance industry so that people who have insurance they're happy with can keep it while also providing a backstop option for people without access to affordable coverage.” (“Republicans Vent As Other Compromise Plans Get Aired,” National Journal’s Congress Daily, 6/18/09)

SEN. MARY LANDRIEU (D-La.): “If you like the insurance that you have, you'll be able to keep it.” (MSNBC’s Hardball, 12/16/09)

SEN. PAT LEAHY (D-Vt.): “[I]f you like the insurance you now have, keep the insurance you have.” (CNN’s “Newsroom,” 10/22/09)

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-N.J.): “If you like what you have, you get to keep it” “Menendez is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which is expected to release a bill later this week. He stressed that consumers who are satisfied with their plans won't have to change. ‘If you like what you have, you get to keep it,’ he said.” (“Health Care Plan Would Help N.J., Menendez Says,” The Record, 6/19/09)

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-Oreg.): “[E]nsuring that those who like their insurance get to keep it” “The HELP Committee bill sets forward a historic plan that will, for the first time in American history, give every American access to affordable health coverage, reduce costs, and increase choice, while ensuring that those who like their insurance get to keep it.” (Sen. Merkley, Press Release, 7/15/09)

SEN. BARBARA MIKULSKI (D-Md.): “It means that if you like the insurance you have now, you can keep it.” (Sen. Mikulski, Press Release, 12/24/09)

SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-W.Va.): “I want people to know, the President's promise that if you like the coverage you have today you can keep it is a pledge we intend to keep.” (U.S. Senate, Finance Committee, Hearing, 9/23/09)

SEN. JACK REED (D-R.I.): “If you like the insurance you have, you can choose to keep it.” (Sen. Reed, Town Hall Event, 6/25/09)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.): “‘If you have coverage you like, you can keep it,’ says Sen. Sanders.” (“Sick And Wrong,” Rolling Stone, 4/5/10)

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-N.H.): ‘if you have health coverage that you like, you get to keep it’ “My understanding … is that … if you have health coverage that you like you can keep it. As I said, you may have missed my remarks at the beginning of the call, but one of the things I that I said as a requirement that I have for supporting a bill is that if you have health coverage that you like you should be able to keep that. …under every scenario that I’ve seen, if you have health coverage that you like, you get to keep it.” (Sen. Shaheen, “Health Care Questions From Across New Hampshire,” Accessed 11/13/13)

SEN. DEBBIE STABENOW (D-Mich.): “As someone who has a large number of large employers in my state, one of the things I appreciate about the chairman's mark is — is the grandfathering provisions, the fact that the people in my state, 60 percent of whom have insurance, are going to be able to keep it. And Mr. Chairman, I appreciate that. That's a strong commitment. It's clear in the bill … I appreciate the strong commitment on your part and the president to make sure that if you have your insurance you can keep it. That's the bottom line for me.” (U.S. Senate, Finance Committee, Bill Mark-Up, 9/24/09)

SEN. JON TESTER (D-Mont.): “‘If you like your coverage, you'll be able to keep it,’ Tester said, adding that if Medicare changes, it will only become stronger”. (“Tester In Baker To Discuss Health Care,” The Fallon County Times, 11/20/09)

SEN. TOM UDALL (D-N.Mex.): “Some worried reform would alter their current coverage. It won't. If you like your current plan, you can keep it.” (“What I Learned: About Health Care Reform This Summer, By Your Lawmakers In Congress,” Albuquerque Journal, 9/8/09)

SEN. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE (D-R.I.): “…it honors President Obama’s programs and the promise of all of the Presidential candidates that if you like the plan you have, you get to keep it. You are not forced out of anything.”(Sen. Whitehouse, Congressional Record, S.8668, 8/3/09)

http://washingtonexaminer.com/27-democratic-senators-who-promised-you-could-keep-your-health-coverage/article/2539245

http://www.factcheck.org/2013/11/keeping-your-health-plan/

SEN. MARK PRYOR (D-ARK): After Voting To Pass ObamaCare, Pryor Said It Would “Protect And Expand An Individual’s Choice Of Doctors And Insurance Plans Without Any Government Interference.” “Elements of this package will drive down costs for families, small businesses, and government; protect and expand an individual’s choice of doctors and insurance plans without any government interference; and assure affordable, reliable healthcare for every Arkansan.” (Press Release, “On Senate Passage Of Health Care Reform,” Sen. Mark Pryor, 12/24/09)

http://www.gop.com/news/research/mark-pryors-false-obamacare-concern/

SEN. MARK UDALL (D-CO): "If you have an insurance policy you like, doctor or medical facility that provides medical services to you, you'll be able to keep that doctor or that insurance policy. (FOX21 News interview (http://www.fox21news.com/news/story.aspx?id=345468#.UjuCrD_heac), 09.2009)


Sen Al Franken On Health Care: “I’m Proud Of What We’re Doing, I’m Really Proud.” (Senator Al Franken, “Sen. Franken Delivers Final Speech on Health Care Reform,” Press Release, 12/23/09 (http://mngop.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4962e29c827b10a434ddf13b6&id=7e03e485e9&e=af8d172ab8))

SEN. TIM JOHNSON (D-SD): I supported the Affordable Care Act to ensure universal health coverage and better health outcomes for our citizens. In 2014, additional reforms will ensure even more folks have access to meaningful, affordable health coverage options. (Tim Johnson's Senate website (http://www.johnson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Health))



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfl55GgHr5E

Really? Really, Mr.President?

[Professor Peabody]

http://montaraventures.com/blog/wp-content/2011/06/crickets.jpg

It's all I hear.

[Refugee]

So explain the immorality, mid, please.

I can see his point, Chris. When Obama said if you own a business you didn’t do it on your own and society helped you, in a perverse way that’s what Wall-Mart is taking to heart. The company pay dirt poor salaries, the tax payer pays for food stamps for the workers and the profit from food stamps is ploughed back into profit for Wall-Mart. So basically, when the profit from food stamps is taken into account, Wall-Mart gets free labour and you the public pay for it.
Not so in the UK, Asda, or Wall-Mart as they’re now called, was a well-paid company to work for I re-call.

[Chris]

I can see his point, Chris. When Obama said if you own a business you didn’t do it on your own and society helped you, in a perverse way that’s what Wall-Mart is taking to heart. The company pay dirt poor salaries, the tax payer pays for food stamps for the workers and the profit from food stamps is ploughed back into profit for Wall-Mart. So basically, when the profit from food stamps is taken into account, Wall-Mart gets free labour and you the public pay for it.
Not so in the UK, Asda, or Wall-Mart as they’re now called, was a well-paid company to work for I re-call.



I agree, Walmart takes full advantage of the corrupt system our government creates. But somehow, to progressive liberals, while Walmart is condemned, government never is, no, corrupting government is demanded to interfere more. Walmart is just a symptom of a disease called government.

[Mac-7]

I can see his point, Chris. When Obama said if you own a business you didn’t do it on your own and society helped you, in a perverse way that’s what Wall-Mart is taking to heart. The company pay dirt poor salaries, the tax payer pays for food stamps for the workers and the profit from food stamps is ploughed back into profit for Wall-Mart. So basically, when the profit from food stamps is taken into account, Wall-Mart gets free labour and you the public pay for it.
Not so in the UK, Asda, or Wall-Mart as they’re now called, was a well-paid company to work for I re-call.


Who is to blame for taxpayer subsidy's to workers?

Walmart?

i think the blame belongs with bleeding heart liberals and government not Walmart.

[lynn]

Walmart is the number one company that has the most employees in the U.S. so yes they are a big part of the problem.

[Peter1469]

Walmart is the number one company that has the most employees in the U.S. so yes they are a big part of the problem.

Don't shop there. I don't.

[PolWatch]

http://montaraventures.com/blog/wp-content/2011/06/crickets.jpg

It's all I hear.

great cricket picture!

[Chris]

Walmart is the number one company that has the most employees in the U.S. so yes they are a big part of the problem.

Yes, a part, along with the workers and the government.

Maybe the way to ask this is which of the three, corporations, workers and government, are necessary causes and which is the sufficient cause?

I say government is the sufficient cause. Rather than bore everyone again with explanation, I riddle it as this: As was said in "Field of Dreams," if you build it, rent seekers will come.

[Codename Section]

Yes, a part, along with the workers and the government.

Maybe the way to ask this is which of the three, corporations, workers and government, are necessary causes and which is the sufficient cause?

I say government is the sufficient cause. Rather than bore everyone again with explanation, I riddle it as this: As was said in "Field of Dreams," if you build it, rent seekers will come.

True but at the same time the government has the force of law and is harder to change the boycotting the shit out of Walmart who won't change because people hate them but buy their cheap crap anyway.

[Ethereal]

Walmart has always used the govt to subsidize it's employees...

Hardly surprising that profit maximizing corporations would allow the state to subsidize their costs. But that's an argument for minimizing the state, not expanding it.

[Chris]

True but at the same time the government has the force of law and is harder to change the boycotting the shit out of Walmart who won't change because people hate them but buy their cheap crap anyway.

Hey, how you doing.

Yes, there are hard rights and easy wrongs.

[Mac-7]

Hardly surprising that profit maximizing corporations would allow the state to subsidize their costs. But that's an argument for minimizing the state, not expanding it.

Why get mad at Walmart when it is bleeding heart libs in government who are giving the money away?

[Professor Peabody]

Why get mad at Walmart when it is bleeding heart libs in government who are giving the money away?

They don't seem to realize their Government Pension funds invest in companies like Wal-Mart to keep their pension teet going.

[Mac-7]

They don't seem to realize their Government Pension funds invest in companies like Wal-Mart to keep their pension teet going.


Im not sure the typical Obama voter in the hood ever had a job or a pension fund.

[Professor Peabody]

Im not sure the typical Obama voter in the hood ever had a job or a pension fund.

It's called welfare, food stamps, section 8 housing and WIC's coupons. OR a government cubicle rat.