With more than 4,000 stores in the United States, chances are you’ve shopped at Wal-Mart at some time in your life. Now the retail giant is seeking to expand even more – this time into the health insurance sector. In fact, Wal-Mart announced Monday, October 6 that they want to be the number one healthcare provider in addition to being the number one retail store in the industry, as well.
They have teamed up with DirectHealth.com, a health insurance comparison website, to offer shoppers the opportunity to shop for health insurance plans and sign up for a Medicare plan.
On Friday, October 10, 2014, this health insurance option will go live and customers will be able to sign up under the website, over the phone or in Wal-Mart stores.
Wal-Mart has tried their hand at other forms of insurance recently, as well. Back in April of 2014, Wal-Mart had begun offering auto insurance through autoinsurance.com. Just as they plan to do with health insurance, shoppers could go to that website and compare auto insurance policies online.
Since Wal-Mart states that it will not be offered any compensation for working with DirectHealth.com, you have to wonder what has driven them to dive into such an area. According to an interview with Wal-Mart’s VP of Health and Wellness, Labeed Diab, they hope to benefit by bringing health insurance shoppers into the store to sign up in person.
A popular complaint of the ACA’s Marketplace, the federal website in which U.S. citizens can compare health insurance plans, is that the site is too complicated and the details of the plans are too difficult to understand. Perhaps Wal-Mart is hoping that health insurance shoppers will address those questions in person at their local Wal-Mart and that they will stay and do their shopping on site.
Whatever the motive, consumers seem to have mixed emotions about the major announcement. Wal-Mart employees cry “foul”, complaining about the manner in which the corporation treats its own employees in regards to health insurance benefits.
According to Reuters, on Tuesday, October 7, the corporation announced that it will no longer offer healthcare benefits to its part-time employees and that the cost of health insurance for full-time employees will be increasing as of January 2015.
Yet others seem excited to explore the newest option for comparing health insurance plans and prices online. With the problems Americans faced trying to sign up for healthcare under the Affordable Care Act’s government website, people are excited for another option for shopping for health insurance coverage – especially in a place where they can talk to a live person with any questions.
Money Magazine reports that 2,700 Walmart Super Centers will offer the services of insurance agents to customers. These agents will be prepared to answer questions and compare health insurance plans as well as Medicare plans, prescription drug plans, supplemental insurance plans and Advantage plans.
Agents will be available at these stores through December 7. Other sites that offer similar services include gohealthinsurance.com, ehealthinsurance.com, netquote.com and healthinsurance.com.
