I'll never spend another nickel at a Wal-Mart.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/25/walmart.insurance.battle/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
Ah, but they're just "protecting their interests."
Sad truth is, other companies do it to. As long as your health coverage is employer-based, the company PROBABLY has recourse to take away any awarded amount of money equal (or even above) the amount their insurance paid out for your care.
And they'll exercise that option, and hope nobody yells about it. WalMart's the KNOWN devil, but most corporations that actually "self-insure", and many others can choose (and actually DO choose) to do exactly the same thing.
It's called 'subrogation', and they'll go after every dime you're awarded, even if it's more than they've paid out. why? because they'll get it. The rich bastards that own the government (same rich bastards that own the insurance companies, and walMart, and so on and so on...)gave them the means to do so.
Heaven forfend that the insurance companies be out one damn dime, if they can get it back by hook or crook.
I'd heard about this some time ago, and am glad that her case is [finally] getting Walmart some big, bad publicity. Legal does not necessarily equal moral or ethical.
Keith Olbermann (whom I must now watch on teh interwebs as Comcast shifted MSNBC to 'premium' packages, whilst ensuring that Faux continues its unabated broadcast to every television in the US) has taken up her cause and has vowed to keep flogging them unmercifully every night until they make it right. (Could make for some interesting sposorhsip mini dramas.)
Sadly, this hardly surprises me one bit.
WalMart has repeatedly demonstrated that the ONLY thing they care about is profit.
They use predatory practices to drive out the local competition, then raise their prices.
Seen time and time again.
One of the McD's I helped build in a small town in Ok, the WalMart moved a short distance to a new SuperCenter. The old store's closed and producing zero revenue. Walmart leased that land, and will hold on to it for at least a year, with ZERO income for the landowner and VERY LITTLE in the way of taxes for the city/county it's in-- nothing like an open retail store would produce.
Walmart KNOWS that competition close by is worse than spending a bit to hold on to the property for a year or two-- so they hold on to it with the doors closed.
Another tactic they routinely do, is move into an area JUST OUTSIDE the township, so they don't pay ANY city taxes, and deliberately sell their "loss-leader" products at a loss-- like milk, eggs, bread, etc. The very staple that mom & pop grocery stores use to keep solvent.
Then in a year or so, when all the competition has closed shop, the raise the prices on those to a nice profit level.
If a city moves to extend it's borders, to include WalMart, they just close the doors, move farther out, and keep that old store for a year or three-- STILL generating no taxes. If the city extends again, WalMart may leave the area entirely, usually with a huge fanfair. Since they had previously driven all the local shops out, the locals are left with zero place to purchase anything, and the city usually capitulates and lest WalMart stay, tax-free, or tax-reduced.
"Evil" is not quite right-- "SELFISH" is better. Some day, in the Dictionary of the Future, you'll see under "Selfish-- c.f. WalMart business style"
I usually quite like Penn & Teller, but their "Walmart is not evil" Bullshit spot was wrong, wrong, wrong in my book.
Of course, for the strict laissez faire approach, it's all part of the dog-eat-dog 'free market'. You are 'free' to shop somewhere else if you don't like them (even if there *is* nowehere else left in your community) and you are 'free' to move -- or lose -- your business if you don't want to bark with the big dogs.
Again, legal does not necessarily equal moral or ethical.
Over here "price dumping" (sell something below self-cost in order to kill the competition) is illegal.
That's one reason why Mal Wart doesn't get a foot in the door over here. Iirc they tried that method, got immediately in conflict with the law and chose to leave shortly after. They were also obviously not expecting that German customers are different from US customers* and that it may be useful to change the presentation style accordingly**. They also have to learn still that greeters are potent customer repellants here :D
*to name just one example: bagging of the purchases by shop workers. A German customer not familiar with that will for a moment assume that someone tries to steal the stuff while he is distracted by paying the bill.
**unlike Microsoft they don't have a monopoly that can enforce American style. I hate those "think for the user" defaults in Word that I am regularly unable to override.
Lest we US voters forget: Hillary Clinton was on the WalMart Board of Directors for 5 years.
Quote from: Swatopluk on March 30, 2008, 09:57:48 AM
**unlike Microsoft they don't have a monopoly that can enforce American style. I hate those "think for the user" defaults in Word that I am regularly unable to override.
I usually turn off all the "wizards" in Word as quickly as I can find them.
I'm with you... don't need software telling me what to do. ::)
The problem is to find them. eben with the "Help" ::) function I have not yet found all of them and some seem to jump out of the box again unasked regularly.
QuoteThank you for your message.
Dear Darren,
When our associates, or their family members, suffer injuries or medical conditions which are the responsibility of others, our plan steps in to pay covered medical expenses so the associate and their families don't have to worry about their bills or have large out-of-pocket expenses. It is only after the associate or their family member receives a monetary payment from the responsible party, that our health plan becomes entitled to reimbursement.
While the Shanks case involves a tragic situation, our responsibility is to follow the provisions of the plan which governs the health benefits of our associates. These plans are funded by associate premiums and company contributions. Any money recovered is returned to the health plan, not to the business. This is done out of fairness to everyone who contributes and benefits from the plan. The Supreme Court's denial of the Shank appeal concludes all litigation. The Court ruled that the benefit plan was entitled to the funds in the trust account, which was about $280,000, which is all it requested.
Thank you,Wal-Mart Customer Relations
For further correspondence regarding this issue, please reply to this email.
----Your Original Comments Were---- Country: USA; Comments: I saw this story: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/25/walmart.insurance.battle/index.html?iref=mpstoryview. You may get that money but you'll never get any more from me.
My reply was:
QuoteI rule that you'll never get another nickel from me. ;D
We need a Wal-Mart Busters bumper sticker.
Most of this at Cafe Press
http://www.cafepress.com/buy/Wal+Mart/-/source_searchBox/x_20/y_13
You can narrow it down to anti-, sucks, and boycott.
If Wal-Mart wanted the money so bad they should have sued the trucking company for it instead of leaving it to the poor family. The firm that represented the family got most of the money. This should all be against the law.
Agreed.
(I called the Texas Attorney General a "Pig Inna Trough" insurance industry shill last week. Ummm, to his face. A similar case, but for under $10,000, was the reason why. Wal-Mart again...)
The insurance companies are some of the biggest offenders in every sort of financial abuse around. Talk about NEEDING regulation...
Quote from: Sibling Chatty on March 31, 2008, 05:09:35 PM
Agreed.
(I called the Texas Attorney General a "Pig Inna Trough" insurance industry shill last week. Ummm, to his face. A similar case, but for under $10,000, was the reason why. Wal-Mart again...)
The insurance companies are some of the biggest offenders in every sort of financial abuse around. Talk about NEEDING regulation...
Yup.
Insurance and HMO's are one of the CLEAR cases where government action is a GOOD thing.
Who better to regulate SELFISH behavior than our government?
*bleah*
Insurance is just profiteering from people's misery.
Just like HMO's are....
A pox on'em both...
Quote from: MentalBlock996
QuoteI rule that you'll never get another nickel from me. ;D
We need a Wal-Mart Busters bumper sticker.
With an "evil" smiley face! Yes! Like this:
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y150/Saltlick/WalMart_EvilSmiley.jpg)
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y150/Saltlick/WalMart_EvilSmiley.jpg
I'm glad that i've spent a measly total of 6 hundred there in the ten years or so that they have been in this city .
The Texas Attorney General is also very selective in prosecuting "voters fraud".
Help your elderly minority (=>Dem-leaning) neighbour with his/her absentee ballot? 6 month and a few thousand $$$ fine.
Hand (rich) Republicans blank ballots without checking for name, eligibility etc.? Chirping crickets.
Yep.
They get picky, and they MIGHT go after me. (Disabled, not minority elderly, however.)
Our County Judge would NOT try that, and would probably stop them from prosecuting me. He's still smarting from the fact that he snubbed me at the Senior Citizen's Christmas Party (spoke to everyone but me and Mom) and on his way out the door, I very LOUDLY said, in front of the newspaper guys there to do a photo "Merry Christmas, Mr. Sutherland, even if you won't speak to me because I'm a Democrat".
He turned bright red and RAN to his car... only to be stopped by the reporter and asked WHY he did it.
The Texas Attorney General is a hack and a jerk. And he's heading for a BIG fall...along with Governor Goodhair. (Texas at large is PISSED about the Trans-Texas Corridor, and the whole Republican Party is gonna pay for it.)
Quote from: Sibling Chatty on April 03, 2008, 02:36:07 AM
...., and the whole Republican Party is gonna pay for it.)
'bout time.
The village idiot needs to return home to that little burg in Texas, where he belongs. ::)
I can only imagine what it's been like these past 7-8 years, with him gone like that.
Why, it would be a peaceful place to live, actually.....
I'm tellin' ya, that place "in the country" will be on the market 15 minutes before he leaves office--while they're warming up the plane to head for South America and no extradition treaty with the US. He NEVER SAW IT before he was elected, he won't be goin' back.
The pig farm--it was a pig farm, never a ranch--will become some Dallas millionaire Repub's pride and joy.
It should be allowed to return to scrub brush -- let the scrub brush roam free, the way God intended, I always say! -- and designated as the Ofishall George W. Bush Lieberry / Nashunal Park.
Wait, if the nation's gonna park on it, it should probly be paved over, first. Yeah, we'll do it that way.
He should be divided evenly :devil2:
Sometimes archaic mirror punishment has its appeals:
The Divider is to be divided
The Thief of oil is to be boiled in it
The seller of poison gas is to inhale it
The justifier of waterboarding is to ride it to hell
The promoter of dogs for interrogation is to be thrown to them
The liars' tongues are to be removed
The arsonist is to be burned alive
The deregulator of food (etc.) safety is to be forcefed by its products
The drowner of NO is to be drowned (or eaten by crocodiles)
...
Alternative: Trial by ordeal:
48 hours Fallujah in orange jumpsuits without military escort
Survivors walk free.
That may be unusual but compared to the cruelty that they showd, the punishment is not excessive*
*No, that is not MY legal philosophy but one shared by many right-wingers (see the typical reaction to complaints about prisoner maltreatment in the US)
Anything that lets the little snot die early is too mild, I think.
No, the most fitting punishment of W would be to blind him, remove his ability to speak, cripple his body, and parade him around the country, telling everyone he's a vegetable.
In reality, he'd be awake, and able the hear only, the actual unabashed comments people made of him and about him.
He'd forcibly have his nose rubbed in reality.
But, alas, this would not work on Cheny-- I think he'd enjoy what people said, regardless. It IS attention, after all. ::)
Bob: were you reading Oedipus again?
Back to topic:
Wal-Scum backed down.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120708739471181553.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
QuoteWal-Mart Stores Inc. is dropping a controversial effort to collect over $400,000 in health-care reimbursement from a former employee who is confined to a southeast Missouri nursing home since she suffered brain damage in a traffic accident.
The world's largest retailer said Tuesday in a letter to the family of Deborah Shank it will not seek to collect money the Shanks won in an injury lawsuit against a trucking company for the accident.
Wal-Mart's top executive for human resources, Pat Curran, wrote that Ms. Shank's extraordinary situation had made the company re-examine its stance. Wal-Mart has been roundly criticized in newspaper editorials, on cable news shows and by its union foes for its claim to the funds, which it made in a lawsuit upheld by a federal appeals court.
Amazing what can change when every news, cable, talk and other TV show in the US goes after them.
And when somebody points out that once her money's gone, she's on Medicaid's bill...
So Wallyworld "gets religion" after being handed its ass in public over this issue!
Quote from: pieces o nine on April 03, 2008, 09:28:41 PM
Bob: were you reading Oedipus again?
Nope. Got the idea from
The Princess Bride, actually (the movie, not the book).
"To The First Pain", cries Wesley.
Prince Humperdink promptly sits in the chair.
....
Quote from: Sibling Chatty on April 04, 2008, 06:29:06 AM
So Wallyworld "gets religion" after being handed its ass in public over this issue!
About friggin' time, too.
The idea of making them as if dead just without the benefit of actually being occured to me too (without input from no movie :mrgreen:)
I thought about disgruntled soldiers kidnapping Rumsfeld, making him quadriplegic, cutting his vocal chords, optical nerves etc. (all by an expert surgeon and with proper anesthesia) and then dropping him in front of a hospital. Whether laving he hearing intact would increase suffering or limit it would have to be decided.
---
In case of doubt put them all into the arena and let loose rogue elephants.
---
Getting untoadfishy here, I admit.
Quote from: Swatopluk on April 04, 2008, 12:01:18 PM
Getting untoadfishy here, I admit.
*Tries her guardian voice*
I was just about to say that after reading some of the later posts.
We all love a good Bush bashing now and then but this was a bit over the top at least for a place that pride it self for being tolerant, civil and humble. I also think this thread got derailed a fair bit, it was about about walMart after all.
Let's not confuse the Evil Empire (walmart) with Satan himself... ;) :mrgreen:
Maybe Larry Flynt should dig some dirt on the whole Wal-Mart staff (I mean those leading the corporation, not the bondslaves doing the work in the shops).
And we should refer to them as Mall-Warts on a regular base.
Btw, does anybody know, whether Wal-mart is also in the "dead peasant insurance" system, so the firm does profit from employees dying?
Edit: According to a wikipedia link they did
Yes, that is just one more repulsive practice of that organization, made even more repellent in light of incidents such as the one prompting this thread.
What the????
[youtube=425,350]f2GpYjODgVk[/youtube]
Wal-Mart is a misogynistic, racist, classist and money-hungry bunch of extremely wealthy people out to pretty much run the non-luxury marketplace of the US.
=========================
The 'management teams that open new stores?? Buncha white guys that tell a bunch of younger white guys what to tell the OTHER white (and one or two token minority) guys what to tell the women and a few minority males that do the work.
All these levels of 'supervisors' are needed to make sure the women that come to do the office and inventory set-up don't screw up the systems THEY (the women) devised to keep paperwork to a minimum.
Women brought in from other stores are there for 2 weeks, on a tight expense account, and stay at the cheapest national chain motel around. They often put in 12-16 hour days, and are only kept two weeks, so that their own stores don't suffer too badly.
Upper management is on-site a week early, stays at the better to best lodgings in the area, has guest privs at the golf clubs in the area, and check by the site for a 9:30 walk-through, then "troubleshoot" a while, then leave to go "work the numbers"...and have a long lunch and a round or two of golf.
What's wrong with this picture? Sam Walton has rolled over in his grave so much that the ground heat is causing weather disturbances. Greed...it's not pretty.
Quote from: Sibling Chatty on April 10, 2008, 12:13:28 AM
... Greed...it's not pretty.
Never is.
Especially at the very top of things.
Can anyone say "no bid contracts"?
Did you say it out loud?
Now go wash your mouth out! ::)