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rant

Oh, Wal-Mart! You’re So Sweet!

Karen · 11 Comments

My friend Chris posted this link to an Associated Press news article on Facebook this morning. The article makes it sound and look like Wal-Mart really has our best interests at heart. And because Michelle Obama lent her support to their efforts, well, then, Wal-Mart must love us all, right?

I think the real reason they are doing this “smoke and mirrors” trick is stated near the end of the article. All they want is to get into more markets:

“Less clear is whether the food initiative will help Wal-Mart persuade reluctant cities to let it expand. Wal-Mart executives have noted that city officials have seemed more willing in recent months as they look for ways to create jobs.”

And in this part of the story, I read it as “cutting jobs” because that is where corporate America goes first when they try to reduce their bottom line:

“Besides the changes to its products, Wal-Mart said it would reduce prices on fruits and vegetables by $1 billion a year by attempting to cut unnecessary costs from the supply chain.”

If you have ever shopped in Wal-Mart, you have seen the size of all their fruits and vegetables. They have the BIGGEST onions, apples, and carrots I have ever seen in a produce section. I don’t buy my produce there if I have an option of another store to go to. So, yeah, while they might have the lowest price per pound, you come out the other end of the check out line having spent more money. If your cabbage is only 25 cents a pound, but the smallest one they have is 14 pounds, you’re gonna go home with a $3.50 cabbage when you only needed 50 cents worth. THAT is not in the best interests of the customer, in my opinion.

Oh, and they are going to reduce the cost of healthier foods for us too:

“The company also said it would work to reduce prices on healthier items made with more expensive ingredients:”Our customers often ask us why whole wheat pasta sometimes costs more than regular pasta made by the same manufacturer,” said Andrea Thomas, Wal-Mart’s senior vice president of sustainability.”

I have found that whenever a product is labeled “gluten free” it tends to be priced higher than a similar product that is exactly the same but does not have GF on the label. I have often wondered how NOT putting something in a product can cause it to cost MORE? whether it is reduced sodium, no MSG, or wheat free, it usually means higher price.

The article talks about how Wal-Mart is planning to cut sodium and added sugars in their products, as if they are they are leading the industry in this effort:

“Wal-Mart said it plans to reduce sodium by a quarter and cut added sugars in some of its store-brand products by 2015. It also plans to remove remaining industrially produced trans fats and develop a logo for products that meet its criteria for health.”

But I found this article by the American Heart Association, that says:

“The American Heart Association is working with federal agencies to identify strategies to reduce the amount of sodium in the food supply.  The association is encouraging food manufacturers and restaurants to reduce the amount of sodium in foods by 50 percent over a 10-year period. Over the next three years, the association will focus on helping Americans lower the amount of sodium they consume via three strategies”


That makes me think that Wal-Mart is just trying to make us think it loves us. It is laughable to think they want to cut sodium by 25% when most processed foods have 300% too much in them. “Healthier” does not always mean “Healthy”.

And, it may just be because I am diabetic and gluten intolerant, butI think if they would take sugar and wheat out of products where they aren’t needed, they would be taking a huge step in the right direction towards helping us all be more healthy. Since I started eating a gluten free diet in 2007, my blood sugar has been kept in better control, and my intake of sugar and salt has been drastically reduced, simply because I can no longer eat products that contain wheat. I am not able to use prepared, processed foods as much, and I cook more fruits, vegetables and plain, non-breaded meats and fish. When I do make cook something that is battered or breaded, and that is not often, I prepare it myself using gluten free ingredients.

I do not for a second believe that Wal-Mart has the health of their shoppers in mind–they are all about the bottom line.  Sorry. Wal-Mart, but I don’t think you love us all that much.
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Filed Under: General Tagged With: rant

The One Where I Go Off On A Rant…

Karen · 4 Comments

Remember back in July when I took my ride down the Kaibab plateau in the back of an ambulance. That little trip has been quite expensive.  The bills started pouring in almost as soon as I got home, and then I had to go to Flagstaff to visit a cardiologist. I jokingly asked him to skip the stress test and just send me a bill, which he didn’t think was very funny.

This is what the total looks like right now, AFTER I have been paying on them since August: $7,648!

Anyway, in August when I got the bills from Northern Arizona Healthcare (NAH), I called them and tried to make payment arrangements. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know anyone who could come up with more than $8,000 out of pocket right away to pay all those bills. But, I WANT to pay them, in installments.

When I called the first week of August and tried to make the payment arrangements, I was told to apply for Arizona Health Care Cost Containment Services (AHCCCS) and when I got my denial letter from them, to fill out a financial aid form and send it in to NAH along with copies of my 2009 tax returns, 3 months of paycheck stubs, and 3 months of my bank account statements. So, I dutifully filled out the application for AHCCCS on August 8, and mailed it in.

On October 1, I still had not heard anything back from AHCCCS, so I called them. The telephone number that is printed on the application is not the correct number. TWO HOURS waiting on hold and 5 different telephone numbers later, I finally reached someone who was able to give me my case number. She told me that they had not yet made a decision on my application, and that they had until October 8 to make that decision. She told me I would receive a letter advising me of that decision within a week after they decided.

On October 16, my last day on the job at the North Rim, I had to surrender my key to my mailbox when I closed out my employment. We didn’t leave there until October 23, and I checked the mail at the administrative office every day during that time. No letter arrived for me from AHCCCS.

Yesterday, November 10, I called AHCCCS again. I was on hold again for almost an hour. When the case worker finally came online, I asked if they had mailed out my denial letter yet. She advised me that they had mailed it on October 15 to my address at the North Rim. I told her that I never received it, and asked if she could send me a copy to my new address in Alabama. She said, “we don’t send out a second copy because it costs us money to do that.” I offered to send some money so they could send me the letter I needed, but she actually LAUGHED at that offer. I was livid! I had to hang up before I used some very nasty language that I knew I would regret later.

I feel like I am in a bad Twilight Zone episode. All I want to do is make payment arrangements on these medical bills, so I can pay them in installments without worrying about being turned over to a collection agency. I surprised that they haven’t done that already.

Today, I called NAH again, and explained the situation to the lady there, and she told me to write a letter advising them why I can not include my denial letter from AHCCCS with my application for financial aid.

Why do these things have to be so hard? What if I was an elderly person, or someone with not much education? What if I was someone for whom all this would just be too much so that they would just give up? I can tell you that I am feeling like I am almost ready to give up on this right now.  And the medical industry wonders why people just walk away without paying. Sometimes it might just be because they make it too hard.

And you know that lady at AHCCCS, who told me it cost them money to send out a second denial letter? Well, why did I have to fill out that application in the first place. I KNEW I didn’t qualify for Medicaid, because I make too much money. It would seem to me that if  medical facilities require you to apply for Medicaid and be denied before they will even talk to you about payment arrangements, then all those extra applications are costing the state more money than a second denial letter. And how come they couldn’t email me my denial letter? Just how much would it cost to do that, after I had already spent twenty minutes on the phone with the caseworker. In the time it took her to ask her supervisor if she could send me a second denial letter, she could have printed the letter or emailed it. AND she would have left a good impression of the system with her customer. Instead, SHE LAUGHED.

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Filed Under: General, Life on the road Tagged With: Life on the road, medical, rant

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