How about for the rest of us?
Yep, another lie. The White House claimed that the Messiah’s program would force consumers to get rid of junk insurance and buy the real stuff, one that covers maternity care for 60-year-olds and abortion services for males. Turns out – surprise! – there are better alternatives, or used to be.
Walmart offers its employees two standard plans, a Health Reimbursement Account and an alternative it calls “HRA High” that costs more out of employees’ pockets but has lower deductibles. Blue Cross Blue Shield manages both plans nationally.
Also offered is a Health Savings Account plan that includes high deductibles but allows tax-free dollars to be used for coverage.
For a monthly premium as low as roughly $40, an individual who is a Walmart HRA plan enrollee can obtain full-service coverage through a Blue Cross Blue Shield preferred provider organization. A family can get coverage for about $160 per month.
Unlike Obamacare, there are no income eligibility requirements. Age and gender do not alter premium rates. The company plan is the same for all of Walmart’s 1.1 million enrolled employees and their dependents, from its cashiers to its CEO.
A Journal of the American Medical Association analysis from September showed that unsubsidized Obamacare enrollees will face monthly premiums that are five to nine times higher than Walmart premiums.
JAMA found the unsubsidized premium for a nonsmoking gouple age 60 can cost $1,365 per month versus the Walmart cost of about $134 for the same couple.
The medical journal reported a 30-year-old smoker would pay up to $428 per month, in contrast to roughly $70 each month for a Walmart employee.
A family of four could pay a $962 premium, but the same Walmart family member would pay about $160.
Low premiums are not the only distinguishing feature of the Walmart plan. The retailer’s employees can use eight of the country’s most prestigious medical facilities, including the Mayo Clinic, Pennsylvania’s Geisinger Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic.
Many top-rated Walmart hospitals — such as the Mayo and Cleveland clinics — are left out of most Obamacare exchange plans.
But the real difference between Obamacare and Walmart can be seen in the levels of day-to-day access to doctors and hospitals.
Robert Slayton, a practicing Chicago independent insurance agent for 11 years and the former president of the Illinois State Association of Health Underwriters, described to the Examiner the differences between Walmart and Obamacare provider networks.
“It’s not just the number, but who they are. You’ll find under the Obamacare exchanges that the academic hospitals have declined to participate, along with the specialists who practice at those hospitals. The same is true of cancer hospitals.”
“People who are seriously ill need to stay away from these exchange plans,” McCaughey said.
David Todd, an independent insurance agent based in Little Rock, Ark., also compared the health plans for the Examiner. Walmart’s corporate headquarters is in Bentonville, Ark., and the company has 58,000 workers in the state.
Todd pointed to stark differences between the government plan and Walmart: “If I buy a family plan on the exchange, it’s still $1,000 a month. And I can buy this for … [$160] on Walmart.”
Walmart individuals face a $2,750 deductible and families need to pay $5,500 under the HRA plan. Individuals pay $1,750 and families pay $3,500 deductibles under the HRA High plan.
The deductibles are high, but Obamacare deductibles are higher, going up to $6,300, according to Todd.
Todd looked at a 30-year-old woman who could qualify for the government subsidy. “The nonsubsidized premium is $205 a month for this 30-year-old. If they get a subsidy, then the premium is zero. But that person has to come up with $6,300 if something catastrophic happened,” he said.
The Walmart monthly premium for the same 30-year-old woman would be about $40. Her deductible would be $2,750, minus $250 in cash advance, for a total net deductible of $2,500.
Just as liberals preferred to spend a billion dollars on a non-functioning website rather than ask Amazon for help, they certainly wouldn’t turn to evil Walmart for advice on the health care program itself. “Good intentions” trum profit motive and efficiency, in Bizzaro World.
For What It's Worth 
When one stops messing about what the Obamanistas have effectively done is impose a massive tax increase on the middle class and ban health insurance. They will pay.
And in other news…………
Radioactive particles, twice the safe limit, are coming down mixed in snow, accross the northern half of the United States. Last week, The US dept of Health made an initial emergency order of 14 million doses of potassium iodide.
Radioactive plumes, 5 times the safe limit, have been observed in ocean waters along the US north pacific gyre
China refuses shellfish deliveries from Us pacific northwest waters, citing saftey concerns.
mmmmmmmm…Walmart offers a plan for $160/month that has a deductible of $2,750. They are either heavily subsidizing these plans (which I doubt) or this report is bogus. Most people that I know that work at Walmart or any other hourly job do not have health insurance or carry insurance on their car. This report does not pass the dummy test. Too bad it will be tweeted to every Republican egg head and repeated a thousand times at their dinner tables.
Aww,that would be liberal “argument” technique #9, Joey: deny the facts.
Boring.
No. Let’s try this one. My family policy is $650/month (corporate one subsidized by tax breaks). That sounds correct since the average policy in CT is about $1,400/month Mine is a good policy but has a deductible of $8500. Now why would a Walmart worker get such a better deal than my family. Is Walmart suddenly a great company to work for? Perhaps we are comparing apples with oranges? The facts of your article do not make sense. But the bottom line is that your article is comparing so many different plans for different demographics perhaps it is not worth a comment (eg at the beginning why would one include a rate without a subsidy for a Walmart worker who is obviously going to get a subsidy). Whoever originally wrote the article clearly did a cut and paste job of the facts.
So you know it’s not true because the company you work for is better than Walmart? Says who? Show us the balance sheet. Sounds like a case of my dog’s better than yours.
AJ: My company is just another Fortune 500 company like Walmart except most of the people don’t earn minimum wage. It does not seem rational that Walmart would be so generous. It is not personal. Woof woof!!!
sssshhhhhhhh Joey
Before you know it, the govt will require car owners to carry collission as well as liability. Since the govt says the individual cannot be trusted to make the correct decisions concerning his own body, why thus would they allow one to make decisions about anything?
Yes everyone has the right to drive around without insurance but the problems is that when they hit YOUR car these are the same guys that have no money to pay. Your argument does not hold since not having insurance is harming others. The same goes for health insurance. Everyone should be required to have it. Let’s all be civilized.
How is not purchasing collision insurance harming others? Dipshit.
Not purchasing collision insurance is only hurting someone only if they get into an accident and don’t/can’t pay. People who don’t buy insurance usually don’t have any money or they think someone else will pay their bills for them. This story should start sounding familiar (old health care scenario).
Joey:
It has become very apparent that you don’t know the difference between liability and collision as they relate to auto insurance.
Now, now, Towny. I don’t mean to pick a bone with you, but I’ve never thought of Joey’s comments as coming from a DS. Whether you (or I) agree with him or not, he always makes a clear and rational argument – unlike numerous left-leaning commenters on this blog. Like Joey, I’ve read numerous stories about a large percentage of WalMart workers being recipients of food stamps and various other forms of government assistance. If that *is* truly the case, I’m going to have to agree with Joey that it’s pretty messed up and it’s way past time to stop the damn gravy train for WalMart Corp. Besides, I have to give him some serious (not snarky) props for *not* exhibiting the Toxic Crimson Brew: “Arrogance plus Stupidity” – wait! CF, did $Bob go there? Because that would explain a LOT!
He made a clear and rational argument that he has no fucking idea about basic car insurance………….That the collision line is to pay for damage to the insureds property, whilst liability is to pay for damage caused to anothers property. Liability is state mandated, while collision is optional.
Joey the progressive statist would like everyone to have collision insurance. That way, when Joey, whilst applying make-up, runs his ’84 rattle trap Camaro into a tree, his children wont have to go without food for two weeks, while he hoards the food money to pay for a new bumper. Its for the children says he.
housecat,
don’t be so naive after all that’s how we got into this mess
Hello Anonymous,
Sorry that I made a mistake about the collision insurance. Please don’t let one error cause you to pass judgement. BTW I am not a statist, I don’t drive a camaro, and have never been on govt assistance. I do pay around 18% federal income tax like the president but only make half as much:))
Good Day Mate
Since Ocare was written by big insurance and big pharm, seems more like a very successful attempt to maintain their income streams in face of demands the medical industry cut costs.
when i saw these “stalker moms”, i thought this was a new strategy for the “get talking” campaign:
That’s downright creepy.
Seriously! Who is their target market for an ad like this?
re: old spice: probably for this kid’s mom: https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRwcannxSc6O4YRLFm5dvKZTL1xgNr5BWEh3GMxVSsb9kRYncYd