Deja Vu

Single Indemnity

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Wal-Mart

“At Wal-Mart, a Health-Care Turnaround,” The Washington Post, Feb. 13, 2009.

Washington policymakers contemplating a fundamental overhaul of the nation's troubled health-care system may want to study the saga of Wal-Mart.

Once vilified for its stingy health benefits, the world's largest company has become an unlikely leader in the effort to provide affordable care without bankrupting employers, their workers or taxpayers in the process. From its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., the retailer is doing in the real world what many in Washington are only beginning to talk about.

At a time when other firms are scaling back or eliminating health coverage, Wal-Mart has made a serious dent in the problem of the uninsured. New figures being released today show that 5.5 percent of its employees now lack health insurance, compared with a nationwide rate of 18 percent.

“Advertisement,” by the Railway Passengers’ Assurance Company, published in Nature, July 17, 1890.
The Railway Passengers’ Assurance Company was established in 1849 and became the first firm to offer “disaster” insurance to the public. Though employees were at first supposed to dissuade customers from purchasing policies (British railroads wished to avoid creating a panic with open discussion of potential rail accidents), the idea nonetheless caught fire.

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