Target Kicks Part-Timers Off Health Care Plan

By Deb Belt

Following the trend of other national retailers responding to Obamacare, part-time Target employees will no longer be eligible for the company’s health insurance plans in April, reports Bloomberg.com.

The move mirrors changes made last year by other companies including Home Depot and Trader Joe's, the grocer once lauded for providing health care coverage to its part-time workers, to end coverage to their part-timers.

Employees who work between 20 and 31 hours a week at Target are eligible for a cash payment of $500 to help in the transition, the Los Angeles Times reports. And, Target has hired a firm to help those workers bumped from health care select plans in state and federal healthcare marketplaces.

Target, the nation’s second-largest discount retail chain, said less than 10 percent of its workforce of about 361,000 participates in the health plan for part-time workers, reports the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.