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For Immediate Release: Thursday, December 21, 2006
Ranit Schmelzer or Jenice Robinson, 202-588-5180
Wal-Mart Changes Course, Adds Prescription Contraceptive Coverage to Its Health Insurance Plan
(Washington, DC) A five-year lawsuit against Wal-Mart was voluntarily dismissed Wednesday after the company agreed that beginning Jan. 1, 2007, its employee health plan will cover prescription contraceptives. The nation’s largest private sector employer, with 1.3 million employees, Wal-Mart had previously refused to provide this coverage.
“Prescription contraceptives are essential health care for women, and covering them will even save Wal-Mart money in the long run,” said Marcia Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center. “
In October 2001, a class action lawsuit filed by employees charged that Wal-Mart’s denial of coverage for prescription contraceptive drugs and devices under its employee health insurance plan, which covers other prescription drugs, violates the prohibition against sex discrimination in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The previous year, the National Women’s Law Center led a coalition of 60 broad-based organizations that successfully petitioned the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to rule that employer failure to cover prescription contraceptives in employee prescription drug programs is unlawful sex discrimination. NWLC was “of counsel” in the Wal-Mart suit. Lead counsel was Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman.
“While today’s news is good news, it does not over shadow the fact that Wal-Mart’s overall health plan is sorely lacking,” Greenberger said.
Currently, less than 50 percent of Wal-Mart employees are covered by the company’s health plan – while nationally almost 70 percent of workers in large firms receive health benefits from their employers. Many of Wal-Mart’s available health plans have high deductibles, some are even as high as $3,000 for individual coverage and $6,000 for family coverage. Furthermore, the waiting period for coverage eligibility is one year.
Wal-Mart’s agreement to cover contraceptives follows the company’s announcement nine months ago that it would begin stocking Plan B, or emergency contraception, in all of its stores nationwide, after legal and public pressure was applied. That decision represented a 180-degree shift in the company’s policy.
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