September/October 2002--Health
Affairs
This paper is the first to compare health care
purchasing in the retail versus other sectors of the Fortune 500. Employing
millions of low-wage workers, the retail sector is the largest employer of
uninsured workers in the economy. We found that retail companies are using the
same competitive bidding process that other companies use to obtain a given
level of coverage for the lowest possible cost. However, they are more price
oriented than other Fortune 500 companies are. The most striking disparity lies
in the nearly fivefold difference in offer rates for health care coverage. This
shows that the economy's bifurcation in health benefits extends even to the
nation's largest companies.