NEWSMAX / AP: …Wal-Mart told The Associated Press that starting Jan. 1, it will no longer offer health insurance to employees who work less than an average of 30 hours a week. The move affects 30,000 employees, or about 5 percent of Wal-Mart’s total part-time workforce, but comes after the company already had scaled back the number of part-time workers who were eligible for health insurance coverage since 2011.
The announcement follows similar decisions by Target, Home Depot and others to completely eliminate health insurance benefits for part-time employees. It also comes a day after Wal-Mart said it is teaming up with an online health insurance agency called DirectHealth.com to help customers shop for health insurance plans…
The announcement comes after Wal-Mart said far more U.S. employees and their families are enrolling in its healthcare plans than it had expected following rollout of the Affordable Care Act, which requires big companies to offer coverage to employees working 30 hours or more a week or face a penalty. It also requires most Americans to have health insurance or pay a penalty… (more)
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EDITOR: Companies have long been favoring part time employees so that they can offer minimal health benefits. With the Affordable Health Care Act, there was no longer a big inducement. Moreover, the employees are usually better off under ‘Obama Care’.
Only in the USA do employers provide health care, a hold over from the Second World War. Better that health care was provided under a separate program such as ‘Medicare for everyone’ and funded with a Value Added tax. Health care would be a third cheaper and better.
