Wal-Mart on Thursday said it will expand health care coverage to more employees and reduce the time it takes for part-time workers and their children to qualify for coverage.
Critics immediately branded the announcement as a publicity stunt, and employees said they were unsure what kind of impact the changes would have.
Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart is Colorado’s largest private employer. It reported 24,274 employees in the state in January.
The retailer has battled criticism over its health care polices. It made the announcement in advance of chief executive Lee Scott’s scheduled Sunday speech at the National Governors Association Winter Meeting in Washington.
Scott is expected to renew Wal-Mart’s criticism of bills filed in at least 22 states, including Colorado, that would force the retailer to spend more on health care. Scott said Thursday that employers cannot continue to meet the rising costs of health care and urged a government- business partnership to find an answer.
In a preview of Scott’s comments, Wal-Mart officials said the company intends to expand its $11-a-month health care plan to at least half its employees by next year. That plan costs less than half the price of Wal-Mart’s other coverage plans, is available only in certain stores and is the result of special deals with medical providers.
Additionally, the company said it will shorten the time it takes for part-time workers to qualify for coverage, and will expand those benefits to include their children for 30 cents more per day.
Currently, part-time workers must work two years before qualifying for benefits, and their children are not eligible.
“Wal-Mart’s so-called value plan remains a raw deal for Wal- Mart employees because of its hidden fees and high deductibles,” said Nu Wexler, a spokesman for Wal-Mart Watch, a union-backed group that opposes the company’s business practices.
A company spokeswoman said Wal-Mart has not determined what the new waiting period will be.
The announcement marks the second time in six months that the world’s largest retailer has moved to improve health benefits, but critics said it still isn’t enough.
Wake Up Wal-Mart, another group that is critical of Wal- Mart, on Thursday released an analysis of the company’s health care spending. The group said it showed that Wal-Mart failed to provide health coverage to more than 57 percent of its employees last year, compared with 52 percent the year before.
“Talk is cheap,” said Dave Minshall, a spokesman for United Food and Commercial Workers Local No. 7, which unsuccessfully tried to organize workers at a Wal-Mart tire and lube center in Loveland.
“The facts speak for themselves. Wal-Mart’s own documents show their health care is getting worse, not better,” he said.
A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said 615,000 employees were enrolled in company health plans as of January, versus 568,000 a year earlier. Wal-Mart has 1.3 million U.S. employees.
“For what they pay us, it’s not worth it,” said four-year employee Vernita Huff of the health care coverage.
Huff, a greeter at the Wal- Mart store in Denver’s Stapleton neighborhood, said she had not heard the details of Wal-Mart’s proposed plan changes. She earns $10 an hour and has coverage through her previous employer, she said.
Another employee, 19-year- old Rene Ventura, said his $8.80 hourly wage doesn’t go far enough to pay for the company’s health plan.
“I don’t know if this will help,” he said.
Customers said they would support any move by the retailer to improve its health care coverage.
“If I have to pay an extra quarter for my milk, if that helps cover the cost, I would do it,” said Sandy Baack, 45. “I like the fact that the stores are economical, but if they’re not paying health care coverage, that concerns me.”
Wal-Mart also said Thursday that it intends to open 50 more in-store health care clinics.
Maryland recently became the first state to require Wal-Mart to increase its health care spending or pay the difference to the state’s Medicaid fund. The law is being challenged by the Retail Industry Leaders Association.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
