首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
These are tough times for Wal-Mart, America’s biggest retailer. Long accused of wrecking small-town America and condemned for th
These are tough times for Wal-Mart, America’s biggest retailer. Long accused of wrecking small-town America and condemned for th
admin
2011-03-10
83
问题
These are tough times for Wal-Mart, America’s biggest retailer. Long accused of wrecking small-town America and condemned for the stinginess of its pay, the company has lately come under fire for its meanness over employees’ health-care benefits. The charge is arguably unfair: the finn’s health coverage, while admittedly less extensive than the average for big companies, is on a par with other retailers’. But bad publicity, coupled with rising costs, has stirred the Bentonville giant to action. Wal-Mart is making changes that should shift the ground in America’s health-care debate.
One strategy is to slash the prices of many generic, or out-of-patent, prescription drugs. Wal-Mart recently announced that its Florida stores would sell a list of some 300 generic drugs at $4 for a month’s supply; other states will follow. That is above cost but far less than the prices charged by many pharmacy chains, which get profits from fat margins on generics.
Wal-Mart’s critics dismiss the move as a publicity stunt. The list of drugs includes only 143 different medicines and excludes many popular generics. True, hut short-sighted. Wal-Mart has transformed retailing by using its size to squeeze suppliers and passing the gains on to consumers. It could do the same with drugs. Target, another big retailer, has already announced that it will match the new pricing. A"Wal-Mart effect" in drugs will not solve America’s health-costs problem: generics account for only a small share of drug costs, which in turn make up only 10% of overall health spending. But it would help.
The firm’s other initiative is more controversial. Wal-Mart is joining the small but fast-growing group of employers who are controlling costs by shifting to health insurance with high deductibles.
From January 1st new Wal-Mart employees will only be offered insurance with very low premiums (as little as $11 a month for an individual) but rather high deductibles (excesses): an individual must pay at least the first $1,000 of annual health-care expenses, and on a family plan, the first $3,000. Unusually, Wal-Mart’s plan includes three doctor visits and three prescription drugs before the big deductible kicks in. Since most employees go to the doctor less often than that, the company argues, they will be better off because of the lower premiums. That may be true for the healthy, say critics; sicker workers will see their health costs soar.
This debate, writ large, is the biggest controversy in American health care today. The Bush administration has been pushing high-deductible plans as the best route to controlling health costs and has encouraged them, with tax-breaks for health-saving accounts. The logic is appealing. Higher deductibles encourage consumers to become price-conscious for routine care, while insurance kicks in for catastrophic expenses.
Early evidence suggests these plans do help firms control the cost of health insurance. But critics say that the savings are misleading. They argue that the plans shift costs to sicker workers, discourage preventative care and will anyway do little to control overall health spending, since most of the $2 trillion (a sixth of its entire GDP) that America spends on health care each year goes to people with multiple chronic diseases.
For the moment, relatively few Americans are covered bv these" consumer-directed"plans. But they are becoming increasingly popular, especially among firms employing low-skilled workers. And now America’s biggest employer has joined the high-deductible trend. That is bound to have an impact.
According to the passage, the health-care benefits of Wal-Mart
选项
A、are to be increased greatly due to others’ accusation.
B、started to incur much criticism a long time ago.
C、are at the same level as those of other retailers.
D、will be in line with the rising costs of the commodities.
答案
C
解析
细节题。由health-care benefits定位至首段。第二句指出Long accused of wrecking smalltown America and condemned for the stinginess of its pay,the company has lately come underfire for its meanness over employees health-care benefits,可见长期以来备受责难的是wrecking small-town America和the stinginess of its pay,排除[B];第三句指出the firm’s health coverage…is on a par with other retailers,这里on a par with意为“与……同等,同价”,[C]是对该部分内容的解释,故为答案。第四句提到But bad publicity,coupled with rising costs,文章没有将员工医疗保险待遇与成本上涨联系起来,排除[D];末句提到Wal-Mart is making changes that should shift the ground in America’s health-care debate,这里只是说进行变革,并 未提到要提高福利,排除[A]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/7WYO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
ItusedtobesaidthatEnglishpeopletaketheirpleasuresadly.Nodoubtthiswouldstillbetrueiftheyhadanypleasureto
WhentheSpanishArmadawasdefeated,therulerofEnglandwas______.
ElizabethwasfortunatetobeborninthelullflushofRenaissanceenthusiasmforeducation.Womenhadalwaysbeeneducatedof
InShakespeare’sfamousplayRomeoandJuliet,whatwereRomeo’sandJuliet’ssurnames?
AboutWetlandsintheU.S.A.Peopleenjoyafamoussoup(SHE-CRABSOUP)inNorthCarolinabecausethedaysoftheregionalso
Thirty-twopeoplewatchedkittyGenovesebeingkilledrightbeneaththeirwindows.Shewastheirneigh-bor.Yetnoneofthe32
Artistsusecaricaturetodistortthehumanfaceorcomicaffect,whileatthesametime【1】______capturinganidentifi
A、waskilledinanearthquakeB、waskilledinahelicoptercrashonFridayC、wasamongthe9deadD、survivedthecrashC
A、Thenumberoffamilymembers.B、Thesizeoftheirfuturehouse.C、Thetotalheightofallthefamilymembers.D、Theamountof
A、Makingawillwiththehusband.B、Registeringyourhome.C、Gettinglegaladvicefromalawyer.D、Donatingtheproperty.D
随机试题
企业的经营者必须把所有环境因素作为一个整体来考虑其综合影响力。()
A.病变多累及回肠末段及邻近结肠B.病变多累及直肠及乙状结肠C.病变主要侵犯回盲部D.病变主要侵犯横结肠Crohn病
关于毒性弥漫性甲状腺肿并发周期性麻痹,以下哪一项描述是错误的
上颌骨高位骨折出现脑脊液鼻漏时,可考虑
乳腺癌局:部表现中提示预后最差的是()
()可能是造成沉井下沉过程中发生倾斜的原因。
中国证券投资者保护基金有限责任公司于2006年8月30日注册成立。()
银行可以使用同业拆借资金发放项目贷款。()
2016年12月1日,甲公司发行面值总额为2000万元的可转换债券,期限为5年,到期前债券持有人有权随时按每张面值1000元的债券转换50股的转股价格,将持有的债券转换为甲公司的普通股。根据这一转换条款,甲公司有可能在12个月内予以清偿。2016年12月3
文学资料在思想史领域著作中,被使用得还是相当少。其实,作为记述史实的历史,可能对有些夸张和虚构的小说需要警惕,但是,作为考察理性和情感的思想史,却不必胶柱鼓瑟或因噎废食,任何文学作品也许在事实上有想象,但在语言、立场和情感上,却仿佛“当堂呈供”,并不能把自
最新回复
(
0
)