Wal-Mart employees not covered

To the editor:Wal-Mart has confirmed that over half of its employees, 53 percent, are not covered under the company's health-care plan. Despite these shameful numbers, Wal-Mart is trying to mislead the public by falsely claiming that its health-care plans have actually improved.

Here are the facts. Last year, Wal-Mart told the New York Times that it provided company health care to 638,000 employees. Now Wal-Mart claims it provides company health care to only 636,391 employees. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a decrease, not an increase, of almost 2,000 employees. We have to tell the American people the truth. And the truth is that, with $11 billion in annual profit, it is a national disgrace that Wal-Mart still fails to provide company health care to over half of its employees.

Contrary to Wal-Mart's publicity stunts, the reality is that the Wal-Mart health-care crisis is getting worse. In the last few months, Wal-Mart decided to eliminate its traditional and standard health-care plans for all new hires, leaving employees to choose between a high-deductible, catastrophic health-care plan and President Bush's privatized health savings accounts.

How many Wal-Mart employees do you think can afford a $1,000 deductible for individual coverage and $3,000 deductible for family coverage (not to mention additional deductibles for hospital care and pharmaceuticals), when the average Wal-Mart associate makes $2,000 below the poverty line for a family of four?

MARK BAKER, Jackson