I’ll bet this is a shock to you: Wal-Mart wants to cut its health care costs…but check out the story in today’s New York Times (registration required) to get the Beast of Bentonville’s rationale and strategy. Describing an internal company memo, the article gives a strong view of the real corporate mentality prevailing at Wal-Mart (remember, this is the company owned by the Waltons who are worth $90 billion–or perhaps less today because Wal-Mart’s stock has been languishing).

Here are a few paragraphs from the beginning that give the flavor of a good article (nice job, Steve Greenhouse and his colleague Michael Barbaro):

“An internal memo sent to Wal-Mart’s board of directors proposes numerous ways to hold down spending on health care and other benefits while seeking to minimize damage to the retailer’s reputation. Among the recommendations are hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart.
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“In the memorandum, M. Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president for benefits, also recommends reducing 401(k) contributions and wooing younger, and presumably healthier, workers by offering education benefits. The memo voices concern that workers with seven years’ seniority earn more than workers with one year’s seniority, but are no more productive.
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“To discourage unhealthy job applicants, Ms. Chambers suggests that Wal-Mart arrange for ‘all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering).’

[Pause: isn’t that against the law? Hmmmm…employment discrimination lawsuit?]

“The memo acknowledged that Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, had to walk a fine line in restraining benefit costs because critics had attacked it for being stingy on wages and health coverage. Ms. Chambers acknowledged that 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart’s 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid.”

Here’s the kicker: “Wal-Mart executives said the memo was part of an effort to rein in benefit costs, which to Wall Street’s dismay have soared by 15 percent a year on average since 2002. Like much of corporate America, Wal-Mart has been squeezed by soaring health costs. The proposed plan, if approved, would save the company more than $1 billion a year by 2011.”

So, we learn that, shockingly, Wall Street’s treatment of Wal-Mart’s stock–as I said, it’s been languishing–is due in part to rising health care costs. Hello, as I wrote yesterday, when are we going to finally admit that the solution is real universal health care?

And another plug for the new film about Wal-Mart: you can purchase a copy of the DVD in advance of the official premier by just scrolling down here on the left hand side of the blog and clicking on the promotional image for the film. Buy one for your neighbor, too!