medical benefits Archives | Restoring Liberty

Photo Credit: Reuters

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Tuesday it will offer health insurance benefits to domestic partners of its U.S. employees starting next year, following the lead of other major companies.

The world’s largest retailer, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, also plans to begin to offer vision care to its eligible employees and their dependents, according to information the retailer sent to workers this week.

Wal-Mart is the single biggest U.S. employer outside of the federal government. More than half of its 1.3 million U.S. employees are on its health-care plans. The company said it does not know how many workers would use the new benefits, which also include free hip and knee joint replacements.

Wal-Mart’s extension of health insurance to domestic partners comes after the U.S. Supreme Court in June forced the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages in states where it is legal. The Supreme Court also paved the way for same-sex marriage in California.

“Since we operate in all 50 states, we thought it was important to develop a single definition for all Wal-Mart associates in the U.S.,” spokesman David Tovar said.

Read more from this story HERE.

This is another one of those issues that should have been hammered home during the campaign, and especially during the debates, but that Romney failed to really pick up on… It goes to the heart of Obama’s contempt for the military:

In an effort to cut defense spending, the Obama Administration plans to cut health benefits for active duty and retired military personnel and their families while not touching the benefits enjoyed by unionized civilian defense workers.

The move, congressional aides suggested, is to force those individuals into Obamacare, Bill Gertz reported at the Washington Beacon.

Gertz added: “The proposed increases in health care payments by service members, which must be approved by Congress, are part of the Pentagon’s $487 billion cut in spending. It seeks to save $1.8 billion from the Tricare medical system in the fiscal 2013 budget, and $12.9 billion by 2017.”

Not everybody is happy with the plan, however.

Military personnel would see their annual Tricare premiums increase anywhere from 30 – 78 percent in the first year, followed by sharply increased premiums “ranging from 94 percent to 345 percent—more than 3 times current levels.”

Posts

Wal-Mart Offers Health Benefits to U.S. Workers’ Domestic Partners

Obama’s Anti-Military Bias: Cut Medical Benefits for Active, Retired Military, Not Union Workers