Wal-Mart, the family-owned five and dime struggling to eek out a living just like the folks who shop there, has announced a strong move regarding its workers’ total compensation: Health insurance costs will be raised for its entire 1.3 million person staff, and that healthcare benefits would be cut altogether for the 30,000 or so employees who work less than 30 hours per week.

“Like every company, Wal-Mart continues to face rising health care costs,” Sally Welborn, senior vice president of global benefits, wrote in the blog post on the company’s website. “This year, the expenses were significant and led us to make some tough decisions as we begin our annual enrollment.” The blog post, incidentally, is titled “Providing Quality Health Benefits for Our Associates,” which seems somewhat inaccurate.

The announcement comes off the heels of a stronger-than-expected enrollment in Wal-Mart’s healthcare plans, which raised healthcare expenses by 50%.

Bi-weekly premium’s for the company’s lowest-cost healthcare plan will rise by $3.50 to $21.90, representing a 19% increase. Wal-Mart says increased healthcare costs have made it difficult to boost profits, citing potential pressure from fund managers and investment analysts.

According to consulting firm Mercer, it was unusual for Wal-Mart to offer health benefits to part-time workers at all: They say 62% of large retailers (including Wal-Mart competitors Target and Home Depot) do not offer healthcare coverage to part-time employees. However, that figure drops to just 37% for companies overall.

With retailers looking to cut costs in order to maintain margins wherever possible, some experts say the move by the world’s largest retailer could have an impact on how other companies view their benefits packages.

“Taking away access to healthcare, even though many of my co-workers couldn’t afford it anyway, is just another example of Walmart manipulating the system to keep workers like me in a state of financial crisis,” Nancy Reynolds, a cashier at a Wal-Mart in Florida and member of Our Walmart, a group pushing for better wages and benefits, said in an email to Reuters.