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Public Employee Press
No real savings on Wal-Mart
generic drugs By GREGORY
N. HEIRES Wal-Mart shook up the prescription drug market with its
recent announcement of a pilot program in Florida that will charge customers $4
for a 30-day supply of certain generic drugs. At first glance, the program
may look like a good deal for DC 37 retirees and members since the union drug
benefit has what it calls a $5 co-payment for generic drugs. In reality,
participants will save nothing or perhaps only a pittance at Wal-Mart.
Thats because $5 is the maximum generic co-pay in the DC 37 plan, which
actually charges even less than $5 for many medications. Our $5
co-pay for generic drugs is actually a sliding scale that is adjusted to reflect
the real cost of the drug to the prescription benefit manager of our plan, Innoviant,
said Rosaria R. Esperon, administrator of the DC 37 Health and Security Plan.
The Wal-Mart program includes about 150 different medications under 300 names
and dosages. Initially, Wal-Mart said it would only offer the $4 co-pay deal in
the Tampa area. But if the pilot program worked, the retail giant said it hoped
to take it nationwide, which drug industry analysts say could lead to a drop in
drug prices. Indeed, Target responded by announcing that it will adopt the $4
co-pay for generics. Esperon reported on the Wal-Mart plan Sept. 19 at
the unions Delegates Council. Later, Wal-Mart announced it would extend
the plan to 14 states, including New York. Esperons remarks prompted
two delegates, Local 372 Executive Vice President Santos Crespo and Local 375
1st Vice President Jon Forster, to urge members and retirees not to be lured into
Wal-Marts stores by the illusory savings. For the labor movement,
Wal-Mart represents all that is wrong with the 21st century economy: low wages,
health coverage that employees cant afford, job exports, the ugly corporate
assault on unions and the resultant falling standard of living for millions of
workers. Cities wind up subsidizing Wal-Mart because it doesnt
pay its workers enough to be able to contribute to their company health plan,
so they end up in the emergency room, which ultimately results in the bill being
passed along to you and me as taxpayers, said Crespo in a PEP interview.
As trade unionists, we need to educate people that Wal-Mart is bad
for workers and bad for the economy. Wal-Mart is an anti-union company whose policies
are driving down wages throughout the country and driving many neighborhood stores
out of business, Forster said. | |