After several years of avoiding Walmart due to my disgust at its deplorable working conditions and treatment of its employees, well...I'm not going back there, but perhaps I'll stop trashing this mega-chain as much as I do. Finally folding (somewhat) to the pressure, Walmart is "Rolling Back" its stingy health insurance plans to provide somewhat more reasonable coverage for its 1.4 million employees.
For years, Walmart offered health insurance to its employees that cost too much for people who earn in the ballpark of $20,000/year. Bending under the pressure, Walmart has offered several different plans, with ranging deductibles, lessened the amount of time part time employees can be eligible, and lowered the cost of prescriptions to $4 for a monthly prescription.
While I won't be supporting Walmart anytime soon, or ever, I do feel this is the step in the right directions for one of our nation's top employers. Human resources are a company's number one asset--why not protect them?
Sidebar: TI grew up in a very small town which thrived as a mining and industrial town many decades ago. Obviously, those industries are long gone, as well as the thousands of jobs that accompanied them. About 15 years ago, Walmart rolled into town and thousands people from the surrounding areas lined up for jobs. This is common for the areas Walmart thrives in. I've just always been bothered by the company's lack of respect for employees, and that they take for granted the people who think themselves very fortunate to work there. Oh, and my parents are both union members and my father-in-law in a Regional Rep in the UAW.
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As someone who has struggled more often than I like to admit with the cost of health insurance for my family, I have major problems with Walmart-type employers. It will be interesting to see how the national healthcare landscape will change (if it does)after the next presidential election.
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