You will be given a definition of a task first, then some input of the task.
In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.

(In the first paragraph, corrects the date of the announcement to Wednesday from Friday. In the 2nd paragraph, clarifies the payments made to employees.) 
  
 By Beth Pinsker 
  
 NEW YORK, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Walgreen Co is moving 120,000 employees to a private health insurance exchange from coverage provided directly from carriers, the company will announce Wednesday. 
  
 The pharmacy chain will join 17 other large employers on the Aon Hewitt Corporate Health Exchange as part of a growing movement to offer employees fixed dollar amounts to purchase their own plans on such exchanges. 
  
 The end-cost to employees depends on the plan chosen, but they typically get more options than under traditional arrangements. Private exchanges mimic the coverage mandated as part of the Affordable Care Act. Enrollment in the public exchanges starts Oct. 1. 
  
 "What happens to employer contributions over time? Will they put in as much as they put in the past? These are unanswered questions but potential negatives," says Paul Fronstin, a senior research associate with the Employee Benefit Research Institute. The benefit to Walgreen and other employers is unknown at this point, as their cost-savings are not clear. 
  
 Of the 180,000 Walgreen employees eligible for healthcare insurance, 120,000 opted for coverage for themselves and 40,000 family members. Another 60,000 employees, many of them working part-time, were not eligible for health insurance. 
  
 Aon Hewitt says other participants in its program include retailer Sears Holding Corp and Darden Restaurants Inc . These new additions raise enrollment to 330,000 from 100,000 last year, and Aon Hewitt estimates enrollment will jump to 600,000 next year, a fivefold increase from 2012. 
  
 By 2017, nearly 20 percent of employees nationwide could get their health insurance through a private exchange, according to Accenture Research. A recent report by the National Business Group on Health said that 30 percent of large employers are considering moving active employees to exchanges by 2015. 
  
 Other major providers of private exchanges include Mercer, a division of Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc, and Towers Watson & Co. Mercer said this summer that it had five major employers enrolled but did not name them. Towers Watson is in the process of launching an exchange. Smaller companies, like Buck Consultants, Willis North America Inc and regional players, are also starting exchanges. 
  
 There are also separate exchanges just for retirees. IBM , Time Warner Inc and General Electric Co recently announced they were moving retirees to exchanges for those not yet Medicare-eligible and other exchanges for those who are. 
  
 CHANGES IN COVERAGE 
  
 The five plan choices in Aon Hewitt's private exchange carry names used across the sector - bronze, bronze plus, silver, gold and platinum - and costs are based on the amount of coverage, says Ken Sperling, Aon Hewitt's national health exchange strategy leader. 
  
 Bronze and silver plans typically have high individual deductibles - $1,250 or more - meaning that they do not kick in until a participant's out-of-pockets costs exceed the amount of the deductible. Gold and platinum plans have lower deductibles and offer more coverage. 
  
 Healthcare premiums for these plans rose about 5 percent last year, consistent with the industry average recently calculated by the National Business Group on Health. 
  
 For some employees the exchanges could offer more choice. Walgreen's employees eligible for healthcare coverage were asked in the past three years to choose between two plans, both with high deductibles. Those plans were managed by Blue Cross Blue Shield or United Healthcare, depending on the area of the country. 
  
 Walgreen's offering last year matched the silver plan on Aon's exchange, so there are two options that are less expensive and two that are more expensive. 
  
 Based on Aon Hewitt's data collected so far, about 42 percent of participants choose a plan less expensive than they had previously used, while 26 percent choose a higher-cost plan and 32 percent stay at the same level. 
  
 Tom Sondergeld, senior director of health and well being for Walgreen, said Walgreen joined a private health exchange to offer its employees more choice, while still supporting a generous pharmacy benefit he said was central to the company's mission. 
  
 Walgreen is not planning any other major benefit changes for 2014, which starts in late October, Sondergeld said. The company will continue its reward-based wellness programs and a smoking surcharge of roughly $600. It will not change coverage for spouses, as UPS recently announced. (Follow us @ReutersMoney or here. Editing by Lauren Young and Prudence Crowther) ||||| Walgreen Co. (WAG) and another 17 large employers are turning to a new concept of giving them money to buy health benefits via private online marketplaces known as exchanges. 
  
 Aon Hewitt, (AON) the large employee benefits consultancy, said Walgreens will be the largest employer thus far to join its Aon Hewitt Corporate Health Exchange, bringing more than 160,000 eligible employees to such coverage in 2014. Aon Hewitt said it could not yet disclose the others coming into the exchange in 2014. 
  
 On Jan. 1, 2014, Aon Hewitt expects more than 330,000 employees to be have enrolled in its exchange. Pioneers in the effort include Sears Holdings (SHLD) and Darden Restaurants (DRI), which have employees signed up. 
  
 The exchanges work like those that are expected to be operational by states or the federal government next month under the Affordable Care Act next year in that they offer consumers more choices plus people who buy coverage are empowered to make choices for their individual needs, benefits consultants say. Open enrollment for uninsured individuals under the health law begins Oct. 1 and runs through next March. 
  
 Under the health law signed into law by President Obama, millions of Americans in January of next year who have no coverage will receive federal subsidies of about $5,000 to help them buy coverage from health insurance companies that sell individual and small group policies. That subsidized coverage will be offered on exchanges as well but those marketplaces will be operated by each state or the federal government or a partnership between state insurance administrations and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services depending on the state. 
  
 Thus, Walgreen and other employees are not headed to an open market like the uninsured under the health law who will sign up for coverage on government-run exchanges. 
  
 Aon Hewitt’s exchange works with each employer in the exchange deciding on the subsidy or “credit” that each worker will get to purchase coverage offered by the employer. Then, the employees take to the AON Hewitt exchange to select their coverage. The subsidy will vary from employer to employer. 
  
 “(The exchange) seeks to mitigate health care cost increases by creating an efficient marketplace that fosters competition at a consumer level and offers an improved employee experience and greater choice for employees,” said Ken Sperling, Aon Hewitt’s national health exchange strategy leader. 
  
 Walgreens is calling its marketplace the “Living Well Benefits Store,” which the drugstore chain says is an “outsourced solution through” the Aon Hewitt exchange. 
  
 “We are continuing to invest in the health of our team members and their dependents through expanded choices to personalize their health care coverage in a competitive environment, giving our diverse workforce the flexibility they need to meet their health care needs,” said Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, Walgreens senior vice president and chief human resources officer. 
  
 Critics of the private exchange approach say it’s a way for employers to freeze the amount of money they provide to workers by essentially giving them a chunk of money and telling them to “go buy their own health care” with no promise that the amount offered to workers will rise or keep up with medical inflation in the future. 
  
 No matter how well-funded it is from employer to employer, it’s an approach that is gaining momentum. Other benefits firms are pushing it to employers. Aon Hewitt rival Mercer earlier this year said that 10 major insurance carriers, including Aetna (AET), Cigna (CI), Humana (HUM), UnitedHealth Group (UNH) and a host of Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans signed on to the firm’s private exchange for 2014 enrollment. |||||
Output:
Drugstore giant Walgreen is joining IBM and a growing number of other companies sending their employees shopping for health insurance on a private health insurance exchange. Walgreen, the parent company of eponymous drug store chain Walgreens, will continue to pay the same contribution it always has, but some 120,000 employees will be able to choose from one of up to 25 options, reports the AP. Another 60,000 employees, many part-time, will remain ineligible for health care, adds Reuters. Walgreen is joining the Aon Hewitt exchange, also used by Sears and Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, Red Lobster), though it will call its own marketplace the "Living Well Benefits Store," reports Forbes. In a fairly impressive piece of spin, a company rep says Walgreen is actually doing both the employees and America a favor: "I think the only way to drive down costs in the health care space is to have the consumer buying the health care be knowledgeable and educated and understand what they are buying," he says, per the AP. But critics of the approach say private exchanges allow employers to lock in the amount of money they pay, then tell staff to "go buy their own health care" without necessarily agreeing to increase that amount or respond to inflation in the future, Forbes reports.