Wal-Mart reducing some prescription co-pays

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Wal-Mart Stores Inc., under pressure
from critics who say that the world’s biggest retailer pays
poor wages and benefits, on Monday said it plans to reduce
employee co-payments for certain prescription drugs to $3 from
$10.

Wal-Mart also said that its previously announced plan to
halve the waiting period to one year for part-time employees to
qualify for health care would take effect on May 13.

The company will also offer health-care coverage for
children of eligible full- and part-time employees as of May
13. That has been a particularly sensitive subject for Wal-Mart
after a leaked internal memo showed that some 46 percent of
Wal-Mart employees’ children were uninsured.

Wal-Mart, the largest U.S. private sector employer with
more than 1.3 million workers, is under fire from opponents who
say that it pays poverty-level wages and provides such limited
health-care benefits that some employees turn to
government-funded Medicaid programs instead.

The retailer has taken steps to improve its benefits,
including adding a lower-priced health-care plan that it
intends to offer to nearly half of its employees by the end of
2006.

Wal-Mart said that starting in January 2007, employees can
get generic prescriptions for common conditions such as
diabetes, hypertension, or high cholesterol for a $3 co-pay
instead of $10. It plans to offer discounts of about 20 percent
on prescription drugs otherwise not covered on the health plan.

Wal-Mart also said it would give employees a 10 percent
discount on healthy foods such as fresh fruits and vegetables
purchased in its Wal-Mart discount stores and Sam’s Club
warehouses clubs.