Posted: 2/29/2004 10:34:37 AM EDT
|
www.ajc.com/business/content/business/0204/27walmart.html Wal-Mart stands out on rolls of PeachCare Retailer's sign-up ratio far exceeds other firms' By ANDY MILLER The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 02/27/04 A snapshot of Georgia's program for uninsured children shows that it's packed with kids of Wal-Mart employees. A state survey found 10,261 of the 166,000 children covered by Georgia's PeachCare for Kids health insurance in September 2002 had a parent working for Wal-Mart Stores. That's about 14 times the number for next highest employer: Publix, with 734. Wal-Mart is the state's largest private employer. But when the top four companies on the list are measured by number of PeachCare children per the number of employees in Georgia, Wal-Mart still dominates. The survey findings surface as Wal-Mart's pay, benefits and corporate policies have come under fire nationally. Labor unions and other critics have denounced the Arkansas-based retail giant for what they call low-wage, low-benefit jobs. And unions fear the influence Wal-Mart practices could have on employee benefits in all industries. Georgia's PeachCare program was launched in 1998 to provide health insurance to children whose parents cannot afford or don't have access to those benefits. Wal-Mart said it does not encourage employees to use states' insurance plans for children or Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor. "We offer affordable health coverage to all of our associates, both full time and part time," said Dan Fogleman, a spokesman for the company. But the number of PeachCare children whose parents work for Wal-Mart struck a nerve with a local advocacy group for low-wage women. "Most employees who make $7 to $8 an hour can't afford health insurance," said Cindia Cameron, organizing director of 9 to 5, National Association of Working Women. "When a very wealthy employer passes off to taxpayers what is rightfully a labor force cost, that's a serious public policy problem." The PeachCare employer listings appear in an internal Department of Community Health memo and were not publicly released. But the results recently surfaced in an AFL-CIOreport about Wal-Mart benefits and subsequent comments by union officials. Community Health officials declined to comment Thursday on the Wal-Mart figure and the survey in general, and said no employer survey for PeachCare has been done since then. Employers on the PeachCare list in Georgia's survey include other retailers, carpet companies, hospitals, banks and federal agencies such as the U.S. Postal Service. A recent study released by the Commonwealth Fund, a research foundation, found the percentage of uninsured workers in large companies rose to 11 percent from 7 percent between 1987 and 2001. And benefits are typically less generous in the retail sector, primarily because of high worker turnover. The ratio of Wal-Mart employees' children per company worker in Georgia, though, greatly exceeds those of Publix and Shaw Industries and Mohawk Industries, the Nos. 3 and 4 employers on the PeachCare list. 42,000 workers in state Wal-Mart, with 42,000 workers in the state in 2002, had about one child in the health care program for every four employees. The ratio for Publix was one child in PeachCare for every 22 employees. For Shaw, it was one for every 30 employees, and for Mohawk, one for every 26 workers. PeachCare now insures 185,000 kids. Eligibility is based on family income. State employees' children, though, are not eligible because of federal rules. The enrollment number is expected to shrink if the Georgia General Assembly adopts proposed premium increases and rule changes. The AFL-CIO said the number of Wal-Mart employees' children in PeachCare reflects the company's low wages and the relatively high price of its medical plan. "You have a company increasingly shifting the cost of health care to taxpayers," said Shaun O'Brien, assistant director of public policy for the AFL-CIO. Many Wal-Mart employees, the union says, earn wages of $7.50 to $8.50 an hour — not enough to make benefits affordable. Wal-Mart, with 1.4 million U.S. workers, is the biggest private employer in America; it now employs more than 46,000 workers in Georgia. The company is not unionized. About half of Wal-Mart's U.S. workers are covered under the company medical plan, considered a low participation rate for large companies. But Fogleman said the total of employees with health insurance is 90 percent, because many get coverage through a spouse, a parent or a government program such as Medicare. The Georgia employees with PeachCare children, he said, could be part time or even temporary help working during the holidays. The company says 40 percent of employees in the company medical plan have never had health coverage before coming to work for Wal-Mart. "We catch a lot of people who fall through the cracks," Fogleman said. An architect of the PeachCare program said he isn't surprised by the number of Wal-Mart employees with children in PeachCare. "A lot of Wal-Mart employees are part time," said state Rep. Mickey Channell (D-Greensboro). Twenty-five percent or fewer of Wal-Mart employees work part time, the company said. They aren't eligible for family coverage and aren't offered individual coverage until they work for the company for two years. Full-time workers must wait three to six months for coverage. Many labor disputes Wal-Mart's image has been rocked by recent labor controversies. Last year a federal raid rounded up 250 illegal workers doing janitorial work for Wal-Mart contractors. And the company also confronts a large gender discrimination lawsuit charging that it pays and promotes women less than men. Wal-Mart said it disputes the allegations. Health insurance and Wal-Mart are major themes in a strike by grocery workers in Southern California. The grocers want to reduce employee health benefits so the companies can compete with a coming wave of 40 Wal-Mart Supercenter stores in the state. The outcome of the conflict, unions say, could set the tone for medical benefits in industries nationwide. The grocers and the union reached a tentative agreement to end the strike Thursday night, but settlement details were not available. |
|
High deductible Wal-Mart workers can buy individual coverage for as low as $15.25 every two weeks and family coverage for $66.25, Fogleman said. But those options have a deductible of $1,000, meaning that care is paid for by the employee until that ceiling is reached. Then Wal-Mart covers 80 percent of further costs. Wal-Mart says its average spending on medical benefits per employee is $3,100 per year. That's less than the industry average — about $4,400 for large retailers — as calculated by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. The AFL-CIO report describes Wal-Mart's health benefits plan as overly restrictive. In addition to lengthy waiting periods for coverage, the plan doesn't cover such expenses as children's vaccinations, flu shots or eye exams. The company's health care plan is designed for catastrophic coverage — paying for very expensive medical care, Fogleman says. The goal is to keep insurance affordable, he said.One favorable benefit is that Wal-Mart has no cap on lifetime employee health care spending, unlike other employers. The retail industry typically offers less-generous benefits and imposes longer exclusion periods than others, in part because of high employee turnover, noted Werner Gliebe of Segal Co., an employee benefits and human resources consulting firm. Wal-Mart employees pay about one-third of their health care premiums. That's typical of retailers and exceeds the 20 percent paid by an average Fortune 500 company worker, said Gliebe. "You have a double whammy: People who are lower-paid having to contribute one-third of the cost," Gliebe said. Typically, as a result, fewer employees of retail companies enroll in their benefits plan, he added. |
|
Look at the flip-side of the "story": If they did not work for Walmart then who would they work for? And if they did not work their children would still be covered under the program. And since those people would not have a job they would be getting more benifits from the state to cover the wages they would not make at Walmart. So what would you do? You could pass a law that requires that companies that employ more than X number of people either give those employees an affordable heath care plan (based on their earnings) or require the employer to put a portion of their profits into a state run heath care "slush-fund" to cover a portion of the states health care costs. Yea, right. |
|
This reminds me of the people that bitch about sweat shops (not that I think they're wonderful) and how we should force the UN (hahahaha) to close them all down. [b]WELL WHERE EXACTLY ARE THESE PEOPLE GOING TO GET FOOD WHEN YOU CLOSE DOWN THE SWEAT SHOPS?[/b] They may not be great, but at least they're something. The liberals here would rather watch people starve from up on their moral high horse. |
|
Quoted: Wal-Mart is the state's largest private employer. But when the top four companies on the list are measured by number of PeachCare children per the number of employees in Georgia, Wal-Mart still dominates. So let me get this straight. Walmart is the biggest employer in the state AND it is also the most highly represented on in the peachcare roles. I bet walmart also has the lower highering standards than any of its competing companies as well (and thus lower pay). So is it just me or does this make perfect sense? Why is it even newsworthy? |
|
Quoted: Quoted: Wal-Mart is the state's largest private employer. But when the top four companies on the list are measured by number of PeachCare children per the number of employees in Georgia, Wal-Mart still dominates. So let me get this straight. Walmart is the biggest employer in the state AND it is also the most highly represented on in the peachcare roles. I bet walmart also has the lower highering standards than any of its competing companies as well (and thus lower pay). So is it just me or does this make perfect sense? Why is it even newsworthy? Because people like to bitch about walmart. |
|
Heaven forbid, we get rid of socialized medicine, in this country!!! Why should the tax payer hafta pay for ANY kids medical care?? WTH?? Is it a kids "human right" to rob someone because his parents can't afford him/her?? I think it's just in my lifetime, that laws were passed saying people couldn't be turned away... |
|
Quoted: Heaven forbid, we get rid of socialized medicine, in this country!!! Why should the tax payer hafta pay for ANY kids medical care?? WTH?? Is it a kids "human right" to rob someone because his parents can't afford him/her?? I think it's just in my lifetime, that laws were passed saying people couldn't be turned away... In a few generations, we've gone from "survival of the fittest" (which worked pretty well for thousands of years) to "survival of everyone". Is it any surprise that the number of incompetent assclowns in the world is increasing exponentially? |
|
Why do so many people in this country believe that healthcare is a [b]right[/b]? If I have a problem with my furnace, I can call up the oil delivery company and they will send someone out to fix it. I have an oil contract with this company. No other company will fix it as I don't have a contract with them. I pay whatever the rate is per hour plus parts. If I don't pay, then they will send it to a collection agency. If I don't pay, they stop any oil delivery or furnace service to my house. I could freeze to death and they won't care. Boo hoo. If a low-income family [b]chooses not[/b] to pay for medical insurance, why should the rest of society have to pay for it for their children? I don't believe that if both parents work that they cannot [b]budget[/b] for $1000 deductible and health insurance through their employer, in this case Wal-Mart. So instead, we, the taxpayers, pay for it. [b][red]If they can't afford the kids, why in the world did they have them in the first place?[/red][/b] |