OK, so you won't be reading that story anytime soon. But not necessarily because it's wrong. Though its emphasis is skewed, its assertions are defensible. Almost half of all Wal-Mart employees are enrolled in a health insurance plan, compared to 36% of employees in the retail industry as a whole. And Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits recently recommended in a memo that the company make its coverage more "progressive," an adjective so dangerous it had to be contained in quotes.

Under changes announced last month, Wal-Mart employees can set up healthcare savings accounts, which let them make tax-free contributions to cover their health expenses. The monthly premium for some plans is as low as $11. Employees can get up to three prescriptions a year for only $10 each, and the plan encourages preventive care by establishing a $20 co-payment for initial doctors' visits.

Of course, these benefits are hardly lavish, and almost a quarter of Wal-Mart employees remain on Medicaid or are uninsured (along with almost half the children of employees). Moreover, Wal-Mart employees spend 8% of their income — twice the national average — on healthcare. Many don't use the company's coverage because it "is expensive for low-income families."

How do we know this? Because Wal-Mart itself told us, in that memo from the company's executive vice president for benefits to Wal-Mart's board. A draft of the memo was obtained by Wal-Mart Watch, a labor advocacy group that lives up to its name, and the final version was published by the New York Times last month.

Although the memo provides ample ammunition to Wal-Mart's critics, it also speaks well of the company. The document is as much about spin as it is about substance — references to a "sustained communication campaign" about Wal-Mart's generous benefits and the value of "better positioning us to fight Wal-Mart's critics" show its image-obsessed corporate DNA a little too clearly — but it also makes some innovative suggestions. It recommends opening in-store health clinics, for example, and giving employees bigger discounts on healthy foods.

The healthcare crisis may be one of the few things in the nation — along with, say, the oil industry or Jessica Simpson — that is bigger than Wal-Mart. Or, to quote from the memo, "This is everyone's problem, not just Wal-Mart's."

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