Tell the Senate: Don’t Give Walmart a Free Pass on Health Care Reform from Wal-Mart Watch

Walmart is not living up to its responsibilities on health care.

Nearly half of Walmart's associates and their families go without the company's health insurance and many are forced to rely on government programs, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.

Tell the Senate that we all have to take responsibility for health care reform—especially large corporations like Walmart.

Walmart has built its business model on a low wage workforce, with bare-bones, high-deductible health insurance. As the largest private employer in the country, Walmart undercuts responsible employers who do their part and provide adequate health care.

President Obama and the U.S. House of Representatives have championed a bill that makes large companies like Walmart do their part, but provisions of the Senate bill meant to hold corporations accountable actually encourage companies to duck their fair share of the costs of health care reform.

Read the United Food and Commercial Workers and WakeUpWalmart.com special report: Health Care Reform and Walmart: What the Senate Health Care Reform Bill Means to the Country's Largest Employer.

The bill the Senate is currently considering would:

Provide little or no incentive for Walmart to provide insurance to more associates or provide better care to its workers;
Continue the dependence of tens of thousands of Walmart associates and their families on federal and state subsidies for Medicaid and SCHIP, and encourage Walmart to have even more workers and their families dependent on these taxpayer-funded programs;
Make few, if any, Walmart workers eligible for tax credits to purchase better insurance through the health insurance exchange;
Force low-income Walmart associates into high- deductible, company-provided insurance;
Incentivize the hiring of a largely part-time workforce, and encourage reducing workers' hours as a way to reduce health care costs.

Click here to send the message to the United States Senate: Health Care Reform is EVERYBODY's Responsibility.

Thanks for all that you do,

The Team, WakeUpWalmart.com