title: The benefits divide: health care purchasing in retail versus other sectors.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: John Snow, Inc. Research and Training Institute, Boston, USA.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maxwell
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Temin
authors.forename: Saminaz
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zaman
mesh_terms: D003132:Commerce / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003164:Competitive Bidding; D017049:Employer Health Costs; D004651:Employment / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017754:Group Purchasing; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry / Q000145:classification / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007250:Inflation, Economic; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007750:Labor Unions; D017057:Medically Uninsured / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010561:Personnel Staffing and Scheduling; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits; D014481:United States