Fitzsimon File

The national movement among states to require Wal-Mart to provide better health care for its employees continues and presents important lessons for state policymakers about health care and business taxes.

Wal-Mart’s CEO Lee Scott told the National Governors Association this weekend that the company is expanding its health care coverage to provide services to more employees. Scott described a plan that will expand coverage for employees’ families and more part time workers.

Wal-Mart is under fire for relying on government health care programs to cover its workforce at a time when states are struggling with the increasing costs of Medicaid and other health care services.

The New York Times reports that an internal company memo released last year said that nearly half of the employees’ children were covered by Medicaid or had no insurance. Workers who were covered were paying for much of the coverage themselves. The memo said that Wal-Mart employees spend 8 percent of their income on health care, which is almost twice the national average.

State lawmakers in Maryland passed legislation this year that requires Wal-Mart to spend 8 percent of its payroll on health care benefits or pay a tax of that amount to the state. Reportedly, more than 20 other states are considering similar legislation, a trend not lost on Wal-Mart’s CEO, who told the Governors that national health care policy is the long-term issue, not Wal-Mart’s benefits package.

That’s true, we do need an honest national debate health care policy, but in the meantime people need to be able to see a doctor.  In many states, including North Carolina, the number of people who have no insurance or who are dramatically underinsured continues to grow. 

The arguments made by supporters of the legislation in Maryland raise interesting questions for North Carolina lawmakers and corporate lobbyists. Groups like North Carolina Citizens for Business and Industry oppose any health care mandates from the state, including mental health care parity, which would help families access mental health services. 

NCCBI also opposes a hike in the minimum wage that would help low wage workers without insurance afford it on their own.  Many of those workers, like many Wal-Mart employees, rely on Medicaid for coverage, especially for their children. Yet NCCBI continues to rail against the growth in the state budget, much of which comes from the rising cost of Medicaid.

For the last few years, the group’s legislative priority has been a reduction in taxes on corporations and wealthy individuals, which would mean less revenue to pay for Medicaid that covers many low-wage workers and their children.

The staggering illogic of the positions means low-wage workers lose in three ways. Less money for workers, less coverage from business, less coverage from state services.  There’s a recipe for meaningful reform. Isn’t the idea to find ways to provide coverage for more people, not fewer?

Governor Mike Easley and North Carolina lawmakers need to join the debate about Wal-Mart’s plan and the health care crisis in the state. Their first priority ought to be to reject the contradictory positions of the state’s corporate lobbying interests.

 Email This Post  Print This Post

This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2006 at 3:50 pm and is filed under Fitzsimon File. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.