In the U.S., the 1.3 million people who work at our stores, clubs and distribution centers are vital to a great experience for the 140 million customers shopping with us each week. We’re in business because our associates bring us their unique skills and talents – and so we do our absolute best to offer all the benefits that come with a great job, particularly affordable health insurance.

Anyone who has been following the news for the last several years knows that health care is a major topic of debate. From doctors’ visits and prescriptions to insurance premiums, health care costs have increased for all of us – individuals and the companies that insure them – each year. Knowing this, Walmart continues to work with health care providers and professionals, using our size and influence to negotiate the best rates and options for our associates.

Like every company, Walmart continues to face rising health care costs. This year, the expenses were significant and led us to make some tough decisions as we begin our annual enrollment. As a result, today we announced that our associates will see an increase in premiums for 2015. For example, our most popular and lowest cost associate-only plan will increase by $3.50 to $21.90 per pay period – still half the average premium other retail employees pay.

We’re also changing eligibility for some part-time associates. We will continue to provide affordable health care to all eligible associates, including part-time, who work more than 30 hours. However, similar to other retailers like Target, Home Depot, Walgreens and Trader Joe’s, we will no longer be providing health benefits to part-time associates who work less than 30 hours. This will impact about 2% of our total U.S. workforce.  We will be working with a specialist, HealthCompare, to personally guide our associates through the process of finding the right, affordable health care.

We are proud of the health care plans we offer, which are among the best in the retail industry, as well as the new benefits we’ve introduced over the past two years for our associates. This includes a vision plan that launched this year and our innovative Centers of Excellence program that began in 2013 that covers select spine and heart procedures at no cost to our associates. We expanded Centers of Excellence this year to include knee and hip replacement surgeries and, for 2015, we’re excited to be adding breast, lung and colorectal cancer care at the Mayo Clinic.

We don’t make these decisions lightly, and the fact remains that our plans exceed those of our peers in the retail industry. Our premiums remain well below the industry average compiled by expert Aon Hewitt.  We also continue to pay the majority of health care costs for associates covered under our medical plans. For example, on average we cover more than 60% of our associates’ total health care costs and more than 75% of their premium costs. In contrast, the retail industry pays, on average, about 54% of total health care costs and 68% of employee premiums.

All of our eligible associates – both full and part-time – will continue to benefit from our health care options that include no lifetime maximum, preventative care covered at 100%, and $250 up to $1,000 to help pay for medical expenses. We believe these options are among the best in the retail industry.

As our associates continue to work hard for our customers, we will continue working hard to keep their benefits as affordable as possible, enhance the quality of health care they receive and make the cost more transparent, which will benefit everyone.

When I arrived in Pass Christian, Mississippi, in 2009, I knew putting down roots would come with its share of challenges. A native of Peru, I didn't speak much English and couldn't even help my 9-year-old daughter with her homework. But I was willing to do whatever it took as long as there was an opportunity.

Walmart store #5079 extended me that opportunity as a part-time associate in the deli. Being able to make a living in my new country not only motivated me to learn English, but also pursue my GED certificate so I could better provide for and assist my daughter. Looking back, doors have continued to open for me from the very first day I was hired. I’ve made lifelong friends, earned U.S. citizenship, been promoted to full-time training coordinator, and built a life I'd always envisioned – which includes long walks with my family along the Gulf Coast.

Today, my English – and confidence – have grown so much that I’m pursuing my new dream of becoming a human resources manager with Walmart. Taking inspiration from my store manager, Lynn Day, I’ve started working toward my associate degree through Walmart’s partnership with American Public University.

Encouragement and support from people like Lynn helps me continue to realize my goals. She’s such a great mentor to me – and that’s what I want to become for the people around me.

I believe that knowledge is power. And I believe if I have the knowledge, I have the power to help people.

If you’ve ever enjoyed a deep-fried Twinkie, it was probably at a state fair or from a food truck.

But did you know some people have been making them on their own for years? In fact, it’s one of the most popular recipes in an official Twinkie cookbook.

Very soon, they’ll be a whole lot easier to come by. I’m excited that Hostess has made this dream for Twinkie fans and dessert lovers everywhere a reality, bringing a frozen, ready-to-heat version to more than 4,000 of our stores nationwide by Aug. 16. Covered in a funnel cake-like batter, these treats will be available in Original Golden flavor and Chocolate, which we at Walmart worked with Hostess to create specifically for our customers.

When I started as a buyer for frozen snacks at Walmart a few years back, I knew there was a desire to push the envelope on the products we offer. Part of the way we do that is by working with our suppliers, helping them further refine items they’re testing so we can bring them to market. So when I heard rumblings that Hostess was considering a deep-fried Twinkie, I was intrigued. Not only was it something different for the frozen aisle – it filled a need, too, as we were looking to add more dessert choices to our mostly savory assortment.

We set up a meeting with Hostess to discuss the details. Why this product could succeed. How it lines up with our philosophy of making shopping fun and exciting again. How consumer trends tell us to focus on both products that are healthy and overindulgent – those “sometimes” foods that are so good they’re worth the calories. I talked about the way this product appeals to everyone: from the Boomers who have fond memories of Twinkies as children, to millennials craving a cool midnight snack.

The first prototypes Hostess brought to our kitchens were a far cry from the product you will see on shelves, but the potential was evident. So we continued to give feedback on taste, appearance, packaging and naming based on tests and what we’ve learned about consumers all over the business. Eventually, we got to the delicious final version now arriving in our stores. And thanks to Walmart, Hostess is growing by entering the frozen food aisle for the first time ever.

Opportunities like these are the reasons I have so much fun with my job. The fact that my fellow buyers and I get to interact and collaborate with vendors like Hostess is awesome to me. There’s so much room to be creative in serving our customers here at Walmart. That’s really who all this is about. Shopping isn’t only about prices; it should also be a fun experience to try new things. And what’s more exciting than a product that was previously only available at state fairs once a year, now being up for enjoyment anytime from your freezer?

For Juan Carlos Urquia, there was always an excitement associated with finishing his homework. It meant he could join his father on their small, 3-acre farm in the tiny rural community of Ocotal, almost three hours away from Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.

As young as 5, he enjoyed helping his father raise and harvest corn, beans and cucumbers more than anything. He immediately sensed the responsibility of producing food people needed to survive. More than three decades later, Juan Carlos still finds joy in the field. Only, these days, his passion has evolved into an opportunity for his extended family and a growing number of others in the community to make a living.

Juan Carlos’ care and attention to detail sparked an opportunity to begin filling orders of several hundred cucumbers per week for Walmart in 2006. That opportunity has since grown to more than 25,000 cucumbers per week, and the family farm has spread to nearly 100 acres.

With access to stores across Honduras, Juan Carlos has created full-time jobs for 20 people, many of them siblings and cousins. And that has created work for nearly 100 others in the community who work to clean, process and transport the cucumbers, tomatoes and onions he grows, as well as those who supply fertilizer and other materials to sustain the operations.

The care was always there, even in the days when Juan Carlos was learning from his father. But, through support from Walmart and other organizations committed to delivering training and best practices to farmers in the areas of sustainable agriculture, efficiency and optimization, they’ve seized an opportunity. In fact, Honduran farmers sold more than $148 million in fruit, vegetables, grains, meats and other perishables to Walmart in 2015. This is equivalent to approximately 6.5% of the national agricultural gross domestic product and helped boost the country’s agricultural exports.

When Juan Carlos was a boy, he and his extended family all lived under his father’s roof. Through their commitment to the farm, he, his siblings and cousins all have their own homes today – and that’s something they’re extremely proud of. They're not just producing food. They're creating opportunity and raising the quality of life for those around them.

Small and medium-sized farmers around the world will be counted on to meet half the increased global demand for food and clothing through the year 2050, and Walmart has committed to specific goals to improve their livelihoods. You can read more about this work in our Global Responsibility Report.

It may seem like an unlikely career path, going from working at the Auto Care Center at Walmart to becoming a professional eye doctor.

Ten years ago, I would never have guessed that I would be headed into optometry. Ten years ago, I didn’t even really know what optometry was.

What I did know was that Walmart offered its associates opportunities to experience different types of jobs throughout the company. So once I completed our Management Training Program, I worked in several different departments. Each of them was interesting in a unique way, but nothing felt like the perfect fit.

Then a friend mentioned an opening in the Vision Center, and it was like a lightning strike. I immediately knew this was the direction I wanted to take. A colleague who was mentoring me saw my excitement and urged me to go back to school. My wife and I talked about it over the next year, and finally I took the plunge.

Within two years I had become a licensed optician, able to dispense glasses and contact lenses. It was a big step, but I knew I wanted to go further. So we packed up everything and moved to Memphis, hoping that I would be accepted to The Southern College of Optometry. Sure enough, our faith paid off and now I’m an associate doctor of optometry – finally doing something I’m passionate about.

I love helping people. I love putting that first pair of glasses on a kid, and watching his or her eyes light up, being able to see clearly for the first time.

Even though I have a lot of responsibilities, I still have the flexibility to spend time with my family. I’ve been incredibly blessed. And I can say with complete honesty had I not had that job changing tires at Walmart, I would not be where I am today.