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Wal-Mart switches to CDHPs

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Consumer-driven health plans (CDHP)
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Wal-Mart is jumping on the CDHP bandwagon. The nation's largest employer announced that it will offer only the high-deductible policies to new employees, but that current employees who chose to renew their existing plans won't have to switch. While the plans have monthly premiums as low as $11, some deductibles will run as high as $6,000 a year. Wal-Mart says that in the long run, the new health plans will save employees money. Critics, on the other hand, blast the company for shifting costs to employees. "Wal-Mart is cruelly hurting its employees, cutting health-care options and shifting costs on to the American taxpayer," Paul Blank, campaign director for Wake-Up Wal-Mart, noted in the Washington Post. The program will apply to employees hired after January 1st, 2007.

For more on Wal-Mart's move:
- read the report from the Washington Post

Related Article
Wal-Mart cuts generic drug prices to $4. Report

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The wave to consumer directed healthcare must, at it's core, be driven by the notion of reducing costs for the employer. At it's face, the W-M company has to appeal to shareholders for overall health benefits cost reduction

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