Wal-Mart is not only the world’s largest retailer, but also the world’s largest private employer. It is also Ground Zero in the battle over employee health care and a focal point for those who say that the current American system of employer-based health care just doesn’t work.

It’s an image the company is trying to change, as Wal-Mart senior vice president Sue Oliver told Workforce Management two summers ago–and as the company made clear with its announcement last September of an expansion of health care benefits for Wal-Mart workers.

So how much progress is Wal-Mart making? If you glance at a press release issued by Wal-Mart today, it sounds like a lot. According to today’s announcement, “the number of (Wal-Mart) associates who now have health care coverage through its new associate-tailored plans for 2008 or another source has significantly increased from 90.4 percent to 92.7 percent, and the number of uninsured associates decreased by more than 20 percent, compared to one year ago.”

“Over the past few years, we’ve spent a lot of time listening to our associates and working closely with them to design a benefits package that better meets their needs,” said Linda Dillman, executive vice president of benefits and risk management for Wal-Mart. “Just as in the last few years, we are pleased to see an increase in enrollment numbers. With 690,970 associates—and more than 1.1 million associates and dependants in total—now covered by Wal-Mart’s plans, we can see that the improvements we’ve made are being embraced by our associates and their families.”

The press release goes on to say that more than 30,000 associates chose Wal-Mart’s coverage for the first time during the fall of 2007 after previously being uninsured. Wal-Mart also says that “the percentage of associates who reported having no coverage declined from 9.6 percent to 7.3 percent—a figure significantly lower than the 17.7 percent uninsured rate nationwide for U.S. employed workers that was recently reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.”

So, does this mean that Wal-Mart is providing health care to nearly 93 percent of its workers? Well, no. If you dig into the numbers a little bit, you’ll see that the company says that “associates surveyed cited the following sources for their health care coverage”:

* 50.2 percent - Wal-Mart plan
* 22.3 percent - Spouse
* 7.3 percent - Uninsured
* 4.3 percent - Medicare
* 4.2 percent - Parents, school or college
* 3.2 percent - Other/previous employer
* 2.4 percent - Individual policy
* 2.3 percent – Department of Veterans Affairs or military
* 1.9 percent - Medicaid
* 1.2 percent - State program other than Medicaid
* 0.7 percent - Another source than those listed above

In other words, only 50 percent of Wal-Mart workers surveyed are actually getting their health care coverage through Wal-Mart. While that’s probably pretty good for the retail industry, it still well below the 60 percent-plus range for most companies that provide employee health coverage.

It’s also a little disingenuous for Wal-Mart to be touting “92.7 percent” of employees being covered by a health plan when in fact only 50 percent are being covered by the Wal-Mart health plan. It makes you wonder: Why can’t the company just tout its progress rather than resorting to PR deception and spin control? Some things, it seems, never change.