It turns out, when you run a business, you have to make smart business decisions or your competition will help you go bankrupt. In a world where where health care inflation has been running more than double, for decades, the base rate of consumer inflation, Walmart is making the smartest business decision ever to protect its bottom line.
That's right folks. Walmart is going to make smokers pay more for their health insurance. In fact, smokers who choose to work at Walmart are will now be free to pay 40% more in health insurance premiums than their nonsmoking colleagues. They also have the right not to accept health insurance from their employer.
In fact, I even heard one state had a bunch of smoking Occupy Walmart protesters chanting "We are the 19%"
Congratulations WalMart. You are doing what should have been done years ago. In fact, it's time to take this kind of employee empowerment even further and offer a whole range of lifestyle discounts to folks who choose to engage in activities that reduce their cost to their employer.
Smoking is just the beginning. Perhaps, this is the beginning of the end for health insurance and the start of a new era of lifestyle protection plans (LiPPs).
