One day after announcing a plan to sell health insurance in about 2,700 of its more than 4,000 U.S. stores, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) said on Tuesday that it would stop offering health insurance benefits to about 30,000 part-time U.S. employees who were grandfathered into the company’s health plan in 2012, the year Walmart stopped offering benefits to part-time workers who worked less than 30 hours a week.

Walmart expects to pay about $500 million more in 2014 than it did in 2013 to accommodate the additional 100,000 enrollees who signed up for the company’s coverage this year. Some 1.2 million Walmart employees and their families now receive benefits, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The jump in enrollments this year caught Walmart by surprise, and cutting the part-timers out will reduce costs. The cost of the company’s lowest-cost plan that covers an eligible employee will rise to $21.90 a month for 2015, up about 18%.

By way of contrast, Walmart’s home state of Arkansas expects insurance rates to fall by an average of approximately 2% in the state’s health insurance marketplace. That’s not a typo — health insurance premiums in Arkansas are expected to decline 2% next year. Oregon is expecting a drop of 2.5%.

Nationally, in the 38 states that have so far finalized or released rates, the average premium would rise 6%, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

There is a certain irony to Walmart trying to push sales of health insurance to its customers and cutting benefits for its employees. The good news for the employees who have been cut loose is that they might find cheaper and better coverage somewhere else.

ALSO READ: Women Slam Walmart on Pregnancy Policies

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.