Thursday, May 26, 2005

Wal-Mart #1 Employer on Wisconsin's Badger Care

As mentioned on Wake Up Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart Watch, Wisconsin is the latest state to discover that Wal-Mart employees and their dependents are the #1 users of its public health care system. An editorial in the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal summarizes the anger about this development:

Big box stores like Wal-Mart cost us all in lots of ways: more traffic, water pollution, flooding and fewer family-supporting jobs. But one thing really hits in the checkbook - higher taxes to subsidize their health insurance.

It really bugs us to learn that billions in tax money go to make the richest company in the world, Wal-Mart, even richer. That's just wrong.

Wal-Mart has the most employees and families on BadgerCare, the state Medicaid program for low-income working families with children, costing you at least $1.8 million a year. Wal-Mart's total Wisconsin health care subsidy for state and federal taxpayers is $4.75 million a year, according to recent news reports.