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How do Walmart's health insurance options compare to Target's and Costco's in 2024?
Executive summary
Walmart, Target and Costco offered different employer- and consumer-facing health options in 2024: Walmart publicly documents multiple employer medical plans (including a “Premier” plan with virtual care and simple copays) and also expanded consumer insurance activities such as Medicare Advantage partnerships [1] [2]. Target and Costco both provide employer health plans to eligible employees, but reporting in the dataset emphasizes Target’s shifting plan design (higher-deductible/HSA options historically) and Costco’s model of member-marketplace and brokered plans rather than underwriting its own insurance [3] [4] [5]. Coverage eligibility for part-timers differed across firms in 2024 reporting: Walmart and Costco were noted as offering benefits to many part-time hourly workers once minimum-hours thresholds are met, while Target’s eligibility and plan cost/structure have been described as more restrictive in past reporting [6] [7] [5].
1. How the companies position insurance — employer plans vs. marketplaces
Walmart presents direct employer-sponsored medical plans for associates (with detailed Summary of Benefits and a named “Premier” plan that includes virtual primary care and mental-health access) and has moved into consumer insurance services—partnering with carriers and offering Medicare Advantage enrollment help—making Walmart both an employer-plan sponsor and a growing insurance-broker/retail channel [8] [1] [2]. Target’s materials show conventional employer-sponsored offerings for eligible workers (with eligibility tied to hours, tenure and role) and across reporting its plan structure has included lower-premium but higher-deductible HSA-style options in some years [9] [3]. Costco’s public-facing effort in 2024 centered on a marketplace/broker model: Costco offers access to plans through partnerships (CBC/Custom Benefit Consultants and third-party marketplaces like Sesame for direct-to-consumer services), rather than acting as an insurer itself [4] [10] [11].
2. Who gets covered and when — part-time thresholds and eligibility rules
Reporting highlights differences in part-time eligibility. Costco’s 2024 coverage practices were described as providing medical, vision, prescription and core dental benefits to part-time hourly employees working at least about 24 hours per week after a short tenure period (60 days), per a November 2024 report [6] [5]. Walmart’s eligibility for part-time associates was reported as tied to averaging roughly 30 hours per week over a 60-day period in the same dataset [6]. Available sources say Target ties eligibility to average hours worked and length of service and that Target’s rules have historically been stricter for part-timers, though employer-published specifics in 2024 are summarized more generally [9] [7].
3. Cost-sharing and benefit design — premiums, deductibles, and virtual care
Walmart’s employer plan materials emphasize affordable-per-pay-period options and low copays on its popular Premier plan, and it explicitly advertises included virtual primary care and mental-health visits at no cost for plan members [1]. Reporting on Target includes past instances where the company shifted toward lower-premium but much higher-deductible options (HSA/HRA structures), a change critics said reduced protection despite lower premiums [3]. Costco’s approach in the sources centers on a marketplace that can connect buyers to a range of premiums and deductible structures; one consumer-facing report cited typical monthly premiums in a non-employee Costco marketplace range between about $335 and $712, but that is a marketplace/consumer-price figure rather than an employer-subsidized employee-plan rate [12] [13].
4. Unique offerings and consumer-facing innovations
Walmart’s growth into Medicare Advantage partnerships and use of its retail footprint to help enroll seniors was reported as a strategic expansion that positions Walmart beyond employer benefits into retail insurance distribution [2]. Costco pursued two consumer-focused moves in 2024: [14] a CBC/Costco Insurance Agency marketplace for members and businesses (brokered plans and benefits administration), and [15] low-cost direct-to-consumer telehealth or cash-price services via partners such as Sesame advertised as low monthly options (e.g., $29 telehealth offer mentioned in reporting) — underscoring Costco’s marketplace/discount-retail approach rather than typical employer-plan underwriting [4] [11] [13]. Target’s 2024 materials focus on employer plan navigation and standard benefit-management guidance, with fewer consumer-market pivots noted in the provided dataset [9].
5. Tradeoffs for workers — affordability vs. protection
The sources present two competing frames: Walmart’s employer plans highlight lower per-paycheck costs and integrated virtual care to limit out-of-pocket use [1], while critiques of Target’s strategy emphasize that lower premiums can come with much higher deductibles that could leave workers exposed to large out-of-pocket bills [3]. Costco’s employee benefits reputation in reporting emphasizes relatively broad eligibility for part-timers and strong benefit generosity in employer contexts, but much of Costco’s consumer health activity is marketplace-based and not identical to its employee benefit program [6] [5].
6. Limits of the available reporting and open questions
Available sources do not provide apples-to-apples 2024 numeric comparisons of premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums across all three employers for equivalent employee tiers; Walmart’s internal plan PDFs and summaries are available [8] [16] [1], but comparable detailed line-by-line 2024 rate tables for Target and Costco are either summarized or presented as marketplace examples rather than employer-subsidized plan schedules [9] [4]. For a worker deciding between employers, the data here recommend: review the employer-specific Summary of Benefits for the exact plan year (Walmart posts its SBCs; p1_s1), check the employer’s part-time eligibility rules [6] [5], and compare total expected annual cost (employer premiums + likely deductible exposure) rather than only per-paycheck premiums [3].
If you want, I can extract the specific line items (premiums, deductibles, copays, virtual-care benefits) from Walmart’s 2024 plan PDFs provided here and then attempt to locate comparable 2024 plan documents from Target and Costco so you get a direct, side‑by‑side table — say yes and I’ll pull those files next.