When Walmart Cut Insurance for 30,000 Workers, This Is How We Responded

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.workingamerica.org/2015/01/30/when-walmart-cut-insurance-for-30000-workers-this-is-how-we-responded/




Last October, Walmart cut health insurance for about 30,000 part time workers. Starting January 1, 2015, only part-time associates who work 30 to 34 a week qualify for coverage.

This recent move from the country’s largest private employer is the latest in a series of steps to pare down health care costs, often at the expense of local taxpayers. It wasn’t long ago that Walmart offered health coverage for all part-time workers. But in 2011, Walmart cut coverage for new employees who worked fewer than 24 hours. In 2012, they went even further, dropping insurance for those who worked fewer than 30 hours a week. Now, those workers who were grandfathered into the health plan have been dropped.

Keep in mind: despite recent improvements, individual Walmart associates have very little control over their schedules, and managers are able to cut costs by keeping workers’ hours under the 30-hour threshold. And for those associates who actually qualify, the company’s health care plan is fraught with problems.

Luckily, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, it’s now easier for individuals to purchase health coverage on the Health Insurance Marketplace. To help everyday workers, OUR Walmart and Working America Health Care have teamed up to offer Walmart associates an even better deal.

FULL story at link.

[on point]

1. The law should say that health care costs are paid per hr, regardless of how many hours worked

to a max of 40. Kill this part time game the corps are playing.

[Marie Marie]

2. Once again, Walmart shifts its responsibility to the taxpayers,

who will pick up the tab for the subsidies provided to these workers through the ACA. Well, at least this is a use of my tax dollars that I can support - unlike the military industrial complex. Thank you Pres Obama for caring about these workers more than the billionaire Walton family ever will.