In January, on a conference call with reporters, Wal-Mart proudly announced that it convinced less than three percent more of its workforce to join the company health plan during the last three years. When asked why more people did not take advantage of the benefits, Linda Dillman, executive vice president of benefits and risk management for Wal-Mart, expressed surprise that every employee wouldn’t at least jump at the cheapest plans. Well, she shouldn’t be surprised.

Wal-Mart’s recent announcement is a continuation of the company’s efforts to implement a health care policy that favors the multi-billion dollar corporation, rather than its employees. Susan Chambers, executive vice president for benefits back in 2005, laid out a strategy to provide low-cost, high-deductible health care plans. In a memo leaked by Wal-Mart Watch to the New York Times in November, 2005, Chambers explained how she was sure such plans would drive up enrollment and drive down costs by shifting more costs to employees. Chambers’ strategy fits nicely into Wal-Mart’s business model, which relies on low prices to sell high volumes of poor quality products. Since the strategy worked for company sales, executives thought it would work with health care, too.

But, the recent enrollment numbers show Wal-Mart’s employees aren’t buying it – the plans or the spin. Despite the company’s efforts to market the new plans, employees realize Wal-Mart has not improved the quality or affordability of its health plans. Today, only half of Wal-Mart’s employees use the health care package the company offers.

Perhaps this stems from the fact that Wal-Mart’s health care efforts are intended to pacify critics rather than actually help employees. In January’s press call, Dillman refused to release the amount Wal-Mart spends on health care per employee or the percentages of employees using the very different plans. Both pieces of information are critical to determine whether or not Wal-Mart employees are enrolled in higher-priced plans that provide quality coverage or the company’s cheap plans, which would bankrupt employees should they ever need medical care. If the company really believes its rhetoric, surely it would be forthcoming with this information.

In another key public relations tactic lifted from the Chambers memo, Wal-Mart tried to claim credit for the number of employees insured by other plans, including state plans. In fact, the percentages of employees who are uninsured, covered by Medicaid, and other coverage options are based merely on company surveys rather than actual data, so it is uncertain whether the numbers Wal-Mart provides accurately reflect the insured status of the company’s employees. These statistics also leave out the thousands of employees not even eligible for company health care due to comparatively longer waiting periods.

Despite Wal-Mart’s attempts to quell this public relations disaster by discrediting the Chambers memo two years ago, January’s announcement reinforced CEO Lee Scott and the company’s embrace of its implementation. Wal-Mart’s refusal to provide additional information once again shows the company cannot be trusted to do the right thing for its employees. No amount of Wal-Mart spin will change the facts.