Wal-Not
In Mark Bonicillo’s “A Proposal for Universal Health Insurance in the
Of course the most obvious problem with any countries health insurance program includes those that it does not cover. According to Kaiser Commission on Medicaid “almost 39 million Americans do not have health insurance (1)”. However, there is another group of people who highlight a serious plight with health insurance: those which are employed with sub par coverage.
An example is Wal-Mart employees. Recently Wal-Mart has come under serious scrutiny for its treatment of employees. Perhaps one of the most memorable cases brought against Wal-Mart dealt with the company locking illegal immigrants in the stores at night to work as janitors.
Concerning healthcare Wal-Mart is notorious for its terrible insurance coverage for full time employees. In fact, Wal-Mart has come out and stated that the public healthcare system is in fact better than theirs (www.wakeupwalmart.com). And this is not where the atrocity ends. Wal-Mart compared with other supply chain companies has one of the worst healthcare systems. Wal-Mart has high restrictions on which employees are offered coverage: they have to be full-time employees for at least 1.7 months. Furthermore, employees who are under Wal-Mart’s system say it is far too costly on the salary they make a month.
What are we as American citizens supposed to make of this situation? Millions of people myself included shop at Wal-Mart for their ‘everyday low prices’; thereby, contributing to this growing cooperation. How can we make a stand against companies such as Wal-Mart who knowingly does not provide adequate health care and yet keep our ‘low prices’?
21 comments:
I agree with your idea Kayla but I do not believe it is the companies that should cover their employees. I believe the government should be incharge of giving good health insurance to American citizens.
That is the problem kayla. we are so concernd wirh the "low prices" that we don't really take the other issues under consideration. So if an employee keeps an immigrant for janitor work, but yet the customers still get lower prices, which do you think we are going to be more concerned with? It's not fair, but it's true.
I agree with Shekinah. Everyone is concerned with those "low prices" are Wal-Mart that they aren't paying attention to what actually goes on inside of Wal-Mart. Locking illegal immigrants inside the store is ridiculous.
I also agree with Will. I also beleive that the government should be the one that distributes and controls health insurance to American citizens. The government controls almost everything else that goes on in America and health insurance isn't any different.
I agree with felicia w. People need to look at all of the problems that go on in a company and not just one problem. I agree that people are so involved in one problem that they dont worry about anything else. I also think that the government should be in charge of giving citizens good health insurance.
I agree with felicia w. People need to look at all of the problems that go on in a company and not just one problem. I agree that people are so involved in one problem that they dont worry about anything else. I also think that the government should be in charge of giving citizens good health insurance.
Health Care is going to be a hard issue, no matter who takes it or how it is handled. Honestly, I don't know who should take it over or what the ideal solution is.
As far as Walmart specifically is concerned, how they handle their insurance programs is wrong. But Americans will not stop shopping their readily. It's sad to say, but Americans (maybe the mass part of society at large?) value materialistic things more than the people that create and service those materials. It's not until the vast majority of the population at large has seen/been under the thumb of that kind of oppression/problems that they are willing to take a stand as one whole, which is the best way to affect such a large case.
I agree with you wendy, health insurance is a hard topic but if it was more dealt with maybe the issue wouldnt be such a hard one. I believe if a company hires someone they should cover that employee.They dont have to give the very best coverage but atleast something that could help them out if something were to ever happen.
i agree with you Kayla. I do not think its fair at all that Wal Mart has treated their employees the way that they have. But I also agree with Will when he says that Wal Mart shouldn't be responsible for covering their employees with health insurance.
I disagree that companies such cover all their employees. I think companies should cover employees that do more strenuous works.
It surely not wise for Wal-Mart to give health insurance for employees like cashiers and those that do really facile jobs. It would make sense if Wal-Mart gave full coverages to mechanics employees.
I agree with Shekinah, people are so concered with saving money that they never look at the big picture. on the other hand though I belive that the goverment should do more to help the people. If you look at most poor families the kids may have medicade but the parents normally have no insurance. How does that benefit the children?
I agree with Will. The government is responsible for its people, they should come up with a better health insurance. Other country's have done this, such as Canada by raising taxes to 15 %. This covers the expenses.
I agree with john. I feel that if an employee is making some kind of contribution to the company then they should be covered. Not saying that they should get the top notch coverage but at least something that will be to there benefit.
I agree with Kayla to an extent. We are always just considering the "low prices" that Wal-Mart is known for. I don't believe that the company should have to cover the employees, like Will said. If it is going to be left up anyone, it should be the government.
I also think that Wal mart should cover the jobs that are more likely to have people injured. Cashiers are likely to be injured and if they are it probably isn't Wal mart's concern.
Yes the proces for health care are outragious. We have to pay about $40 to $80 for medicine that the pharmacy only pays about 20 cents for. So if the U.S. has universal health insurance it would be a lot easier on the workers.
I agree that americans get too caught up in the low prices. I have to admit though, that im no different. I dont worry about the actual people's jobs although i should. But you cant blame anyone for not worrying about other people's jobs. But do agree that the government should be the ones in charge of this.
I believe that the companies should have to cover the health insurance rather than the government. It isn't that hard to go out and get a job that has benefits and coverage, a person just has to be willing and stop relying on others to help them along their way.
I somewhat agree with Edikan. Employers should only provide the best health insurance for the people who do the most strenuous work. Though cashiers should get some coverage, they do not do as much 'health risk' work as stockers and mechanics.
I agree with you Kayla. The governement are the ones held accountable for any injury that their fellow citizen and employee has. But also those that provide the job as well are the ones that should be held accountable too. The entire employee and janitor deal is way under cause. We should not get low prices if they doing hazardous things such as this. It's not right but yet people are doing it!!
I agree with Shekinah and Felicia. When people shop at Wal-Mart they are just there walking around and not taking the time out to think about how are the employees being treated inside the store. I would also say that locking illegal immigrants inside the store over night is ridiculous and cruel. Those people need to go home to their family just like everyone else.
Great argument; However, I think the people of America are poorly treat. In England, where I am from, we have a national health service. We don’t pay for health insurance, tax is taken out of our salaries and it goes to the government which uses that money to pay for education and the National Health Service. I believe that a country such as the United States should be getting a similar kind of service. Although American is one of the richest countries in the, the people in it are not taken care of as well as I expected.
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