Wal-Mart, unions unveil health care goal

WASHINGTON — Executives from Wal-Mart and three other large U.S. employers on Wednesday joined union leaders in calling for “quality, affordable” health care for every American by 2012.

However, they did not propose any specific policies to achieve this goal, or commit to spending any extra money in the near-term to provide health coverage to more workers.

Joining Wal-Mart Stores Inc. CEO Lee Scott and Service Employees International Union leader Andrew Stern at a Washington press conference were top executives from Intel Corp., AT&T Inc. and Kelly Services Inc., a temporary staffing agency.

Yet some critics of Wal-Mart’s health care policy remained unsatisfied.

“2012 is a still long way away. What about now?” said Dana Rezaie, a widow with three children who works nights stocking shelves at a Wal-Mart store in Fridley, Minn.

The partnership of business and union leaders laid out four main goals, including universal health-care coverage for all Americans and boosting the value of every U.S. dollar spent on health care. The business and union leaders’ coalition, dubbed “Better Health Care Together,” pledged to convene a national summit by the end of May to recruit others from the private sector, labor, government and non-profits.

“Government alone won’t and can’t solve this crisis,” Scott said. “By following this campaign’s common sense principles, we believe America can have high quality, affordable and accessible health care by 2012.”

But Scott and others did not provide a detailed plan. In response to a reporter’s question, Scott said Wal-Mart is not committed to spending more on health care or making any immediate promises to provide health coverage to more workers.