Wal-Mart to Gut Health Care Options

Prices are going up at Wal-Mart, for employees that is. The company, already not known for generosity in benefits, is planning on eliminating many of their health care options, leaving workers with two choices: a high deductible plan and a health savings account plan. The plans are being called Value Plan and Freedom Plan, reminding us all once again of the fact that we now inhabit an Orwell novel. The details of this news get horrific very quickly. When combining low wages with high deductible plans, scary things can happen. Wake-Up Wal-Mart's analysis indicates that a family depending on one of the offered plans from Wal-Mart could end up paying as much as 60% of their income to health insurance and that single workers could pay as much as 30%.