Wal-Mart Memo Suggests Ways to Cut Employee Benefit Costs - New York Times

Is discrimination against sick people a civil rights violation? It's not so clearly defined. Leave it to those pioneers of human rights Wal-Mart to pose that question by making it a corporate policy to hire only healthy peopleby making sure "all jobs include some physical activity." That means if you are old, disabled, pregnant, or otherwise unable to collect carts, lift boxes or, I don't know, chase shoplifters, please don't apply.

The Wal-Mart memo in question states Wal-Mart workers "are getting sicker than the national population, particularly in obesity-related diseases," including diabetes and coronary artery disease. The memo said Wal-Mart workers tended to overuse emergency rooms and underuse prescriptions and doctor visits, perhaps from previous experience with Medicaid.

This is a commentary ont he economic class of people that are working at Wal-Mart. If you're poor it is alot easier to buy three boxes of Macaroni and Cheese than it is to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. "Previous experience with Medicaid" is code for ex-welfare recipients.

So what else is Wal-Mart proposing? Installing clinics in their stores "in part to reduce expensive employee visits to emergency rooms." What happens if the clinic doctor says that you don't need a specific treatment and you try to get a second opinion, will your Wal-Mart insurance pay for it? Will you lose your job if you sue a doctor in the clinic for malpractice? Will your coworkers or supervisors have access to your medical records or how many times you visit the clinic? (You know they will if you work in guns and ammunition and every day they see you hanging around the clinic!)

Interesting to note, less than 45 percent of Wal-Mart workers receive company health insurance, 5 percent of Wal-Mart's workers were on Medicaid, compared with 4 percent for other national employers, and 38 percent of Wal-Mart workers spent more than one-sixth of their Wal-Mart income on health care last year.