By the way, WalMart gave part-timers health insurance . . . until ObamaCare

Autumn is typically when U.S. companies unveil changes to employee insurance plans. This is the first such enrollment period since employers could assess the full financial impact of the federal health-care overhaul, and it is a key moment as companies work to lower their spending ahead of looming taxes on the most generous plans. Many businesses are continuing to shift more costs to workers. Phoenix-based technology distributor Avnet Inc., AVT -1.35% for example, is paring back its traditional plans in favor of high-deductible options. Other companies are reducing coverage for spouses, according to consultants at Towers Watson & Co.

Still others are going further, ending their traditional coverage for employees who will instead get a fixed sum of money to buy their own insurance on private exchanges.Aon AON -2.11% PLC's Aon Hewitt is set to announce that enrollment in its exchange will grow to around 850,000 workers and dependents next year, as another 15 employers sign up. Several facets of the health-care overhaul are driving concerns about costs: one is the coming tax on so-called Cadillac plans, which carry high premiums and offer rich benefits, and another is the individual mandate that requires most workers to obtain coverage or else face a penalty. For Wal-Mart, that push from the individual mandate contributed to an influx of workers who signed up for coverage, jacking up costs. Wal-Mart, the country's largest private employer, with about 1.4 million employees, forecasts that its health-care costs will rise by $500 million more than it had expected in the year ending Jan. 31, 2015.

Wal-Mart endorsed ObamaCare in 2009 and helped drag the bill through Congress, and so far it hasn't recanted. By holding back economic growth and incomes, perhaps the law is expanding the retailer's customer base. Another plus -- at least for management -- is that Wal-Mart can jettison its employees into the ObamaCare insurance exchanges. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the largest U.S. private employer is dropping health benefits for some 30,000 workers, or about 5% of its part-time workforce. Earlier health-plan eligibility triage in 2011 had removed tens of thousands of Wal-Mart workers from the balance sheet, so this latest purge was probably inevitable. Wal-Mart cites its inability to manage higher-than-anticipated health expenses. Perhaps -- though wasn't ObamaCare supposed to bring those costs down? Obviously the company is also responding rationally to ObamaCare's incentives. With a subsidized government alternative now open for business, and since corporations aren't liable for a penalty for not covering people who work fewer than 30 hours a week on average, cost-control logic says to send such coverage ballast over the side. Other retail and grocery chains including Target, Home Depot and Trader Joe's have already done the same.

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