Depending on whom you ask, the nation’s largest retailer of natural and organic foods can be held up as a model for health care reform for other employers to emulate or dismissed as a notorious cost-shifter that forces employees to ration their care.
Whole Foods Market, Inc. pays 100% of monthly health care premiums for U.S. employees who work 30 hours a week, which translates into roughly 89% of a 51,100-member workforce. And though they face a $2,500 annual deductible, these employees receive $300 to $1,800 toward a Personal Wellness Account, depending on their years of service, to help ease out-of-pocket costs.
