Businesses blast 'list of shame'

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-medicaid08.html

SPRINGFIELD -- The state would start naming companies with the most workers enrolled in taxpayer-funded Medicaid programs if Gov. Blagojevich signs a measure that business leaders say would have no impact other than to generate "a list of shame" that would embarrass them.

Under a little-noticed provision inserted into a bill the General Assembly approved last week, officials would create a list of employers whose workers lack adequate private health insurance and must turn to the state for help paying their doctor bills.

Supporters say the list would help highlight which industries are more likely to offer coverage. It also would help legislators retool state law to help those industries that aren't providing health care benefits do so.

But businesses are dubious, fearing a bad rap if they show up on the list. snip

Across the country, at least 24 other states are considering similar proposals. Colorado's Republican Gov. Bill Owens vetoed similar legislation May 27, and Wal-Mart dispatched top executives to fight Minnesota's database plan last week.

[atommom]

1. If they show up on the list, they DO deserve a bad rap.

I'm getting sick of the corporate whining that ensues whenever someone suggests they should consider something other than fattening their bottom line. They do have tremendous power, and so they do have a responsibility to society as well.

:nopity:

[TahitiNut]

4. They whine any time there's transparency.

Heaven f*cking forbid that there's public disclosure regarding the community impact of their publicly licensed business activities! F*cking hypocritical profiteers!

[BlueIris]

9. Sure do. Whiners.

Well-insured whiners, too, I've noticed.

[Toots]

24. Most Corporations are very small..ten to twenty employees

It cost a company approx seven hundred dollars an employee for health care. Since when did it become the responsibility of the small businessman to provide health care to employees. It is extremely tough to make a profit in this environment of "Big box" stores such as WalMart and Kroger let alone have rising health insurance costs put you out of business so your employees not only don't have health insurance but they doen't have any job either. Insurance costs have skyrocketed since 911, actually even before that. Fuel cost are causing major problems. Most small companies are doing all they can and are proud they are even able to employee a few people. This health care crisis should not be dumped on the employer but on Congress. We need national health care and all cost of goods would come down, Prices would drop and employees would get raises. Economy would boom. It is not the Republican way where a few get filthy rich off the majority.

[DBoon]

27. The list would likely NOT generate bad publicity for small businesses

As there would be so many of them on the list. The vast number showing up would drive home the point that these small struggling enterprises need publicly funded healthcare to function.

It would also give the lie to the argument that government healthcare is only for the idle, indolent poor - that many working people just can't afford it.

The big megacorps would be the ones getting and deserving the bad publicity, especially ones with billionaire owners like Walmart.

I assume the public has some sympathy for small businesses and understands that most small businessmen are not so wealthy they could afford to buy private insurance.

[Bill McBlueState]

28. Good thing the small ones are exempt.

Should the governor sign the bill, the first report would come out in October 2006 and include only businesses with more than 100 employees and at least 25 workers on the Medicaid rolls. The reports would stop after 2009 unless lawmakers extend the program.

[whistle]

2. Medicare is going brankrupt, correct?

[TahitiNut]

3. "fearing a bad rap if they show up on the list"? Well, D'oh?!?!

Easy solution: provide employee heath care benefits, you a$$holes!

[librechik]

5. Bill "Anything for the GOP" Owens vetoed, of course

this shows what side our "elected leaders" are really on in this we-the- people-country!

[cascadiance]

6. Go for it Illinois!

But businesses are dubious, fearing a bad rap if they show up on the list. snip

I think that's the point!! And a well made one at that!

If the Rethugs feel that they can argue against this, then it becomes a poster child issue as to why we need universal single-payer health care that takes away the private sector leeches, and makes sure that everyone has it adequately. But then it would have an appropriate budget that we'd all pay in a fair share for *our own* health care, and not have the rest of us subsidize *both* our own health insurance plans through our own companies paying for it with the revenue we generate as employees *AND* having to foot the bill for companies like Wal-Mart's malfeasance. That is unacceptable!

[Tsiyu]

7. Oh, dear. Businesses can piss-test you, background check you,

run credit checks on you, blah, freakin' blah; but you aren't allowed to know which companies refuse to pay a living wage or provide adequate benefits?

Is this how Business in Amurika shows its goodwill and enhancement of communities ("oh, we must kiss businesses' asses, because they create jobs that HELP THE COMMUNITY" - isn't this the whole theory of trickle down economics?) or its commitment to the ideal of fairness?

As long as we can hide it, who cares what the truth is?

[Supersedeas]

11. ya get the privacy ya pay for--so lobby harder businesses and we'll keep

it secret for ya.

[Bill McBlueState]

8. nice threat from the CoC

The Chamber of Commerce lobbyist says, What if every company in the state decided we're not going to have any more insurance?

Try it, Carney. That'd be hilarious.

[Gman]

10. fearing a bad rap?

Its not a "bad rap" if its true. The numbers from Medicaid don't lie. If business leaders are afraid of being embarrased, then do something about it like provide better health care. I guarantee you that will fix the problem.

[DURHAM D]

12. Can someone explain to me why corporations don't throw

their support behind national health insurance. It seems like it would lower their costs.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

26. Because they're Republican

And because they are evil. They would rather their employees sicken and die before they would allow a big-government solution. Understand something. You're dealing with a group of people who aren't normal by any generally-accepted definition of the word.

These are the same people you see weeping on television after learning that their child was killed in Iraq. Even after such a loss, they still support the President. The simple truth is that their ideology is more important to them that their own children. They are like pagans offering up a human sacrifice.

They're just not normal.

[gratuitous]

13. Why shouldn't taxpayers know which businesses they're subsidizing?

If a business is fattening its bottom line at taxpayer expense, I think it's legitimate for the taxpayers to know who's got their corporate snout in the trough.

[progressivebydesign]

14. I say publish them!

I was thinking this morning about health care premiums. The thing that those people who vote for those that are in bed with insurance lobbyists (i.e. republican candidates) don't understand that unless they are making a shitload of money (which most people don't anymore) they just voted to screw themselves. I realized that because of health insurance premiums (if you're lucky to have insurance even available at work or if you have to self insure) are so high that it reads like another rent payment in your household budget. If you could afford a mortgage or rent a few years ago, suddenly that 500 or 700 dollar insurance premium makes your house no longer affordable.

We're getting fucked over by the insurance industry and by those large employers that refuse to share the profit of their biz with those that keep it running. Instead, the wealth is going to fat ass investors who do nothing by sit and check numbers on their computer. Oh.. and we ALL pay AGAIN through increased taxes for those that are now uninsured.

But.. gay marriage is a much more pressing issue for those voters who chose Bush.

[napi21]

15. I say publish them too! Can someone tell me how you qualify for

State subsidized health care? My husband has his ins premiums taken out of his pay, but some others he works with say they can't afford it, so they refuse the ins offered by the employer and enroll their kids in Peach Care (Health care for kids in Ga). How can they get away with that? I understand it's nicer to get the bigger paycheck, but is it fair for me to have to pay for our premiums and again, pay in taxes, to cover someone elses kids?

[bleedingheart]

17. do you not realize that is is actually quite shameful that company

pays those workers so little that they qualify for PeachCare? (the equivalent of CHIP here in PA)

Those people are perhaps smarter than you think. They are going without healthcare but they are making sure their kids are getting healthcare in spite of that. But I bet they now have enough to at lest pay the rent and perhaps cover their other expenses.

These are the figures from this article...

"In addition, the state is re-examining parents’ incomes to determine whether children qualify. To qualify for PeachCare, a family of four can’t earn more than $44,000 annually. A family of three can earn no more than $36,000. "

http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/content/1/14057/Legislators+move+to+protect+PeachCare.htm

Personally I would rather spend my tax dollars on helping people and kids get healthcare than having it go to Halliburton and the other war profitteers.

Life is only so long...why make a misery of it for others if we do not have to?

[napi21]

20. I don't mean to be insensitive, but do you realize 36,000 is $17.30/hr?

Do you really think that $17.30/hr is a poverty wage? I don't.

I have no problem with the State having a program to support poor kids, but it looks to me like the qualification amounts are too high.

[NNN0LHI]

21. I think you are being insensitive

36,000 a year for three ain't nothing. I jumped on someone singing the blues because they were "only" making 130K a while back. I thought they were joking. I still wonder. But getting back to this 36 thousand stuff, that does not go far out there in this day and age. Really. I am being serious. Might keep you out of the gutter, but not a whole hell of a lot more than that. 36 grand? Shit.

Don

[napi21]

23. I guess it depends on your lifestyle.

My husband makes $28,000/yr and we are doing just fine. We don't go out to dinner very much, never go to the movie theater simply because it costs more than we think it's worth, but I can't think of anything that we need, or really want for that matter, that we don't have.

Sure, I'd like to make more $$, but wouldn't everyone???

And, or course, remember we do pay for our health insurance too.

[BiggJawn]

22. And your point is?

I'm just a Family of One here making about 36 kilobucks. Lemme tell ya, napi, between supporting causes that MIGHT save this country and avoiding shopping at the Evil Empire Wally-world, that 36 kilobucks don't go very far.

No vacation on the Riviera this year, and I had to sell my yacht and 1/2 share in the Beechcraft Bonanza I use to co-own to be able to afford to get my teeth fixed...:sarcasm: (except for the part about getting the teeth fixed. I gotta come up with a spare $3500 for THAT!)

[bleedingheart]

16. I think that there should be a Corporate List of Shame..

why not?

[AndyTiedye]

18. "List of Shame" -- They Called It!

The way those companies treat their employees is shameful.

[oneold1-4u]

19. Just one more note

Say that you become unemployed not of your choosing and you quickly apply for unemployment benefits. If you had any insurance in previous employ has no bearing on your application for a new job.
You are expected to accept anything offered at almost any pay scale after a period of time! Wall mart, Mac Donalds, and Taco Bell look tempting to anyone who sees hunger!

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

25. Do States have the equivalent of FOIA?

I think the AFL-CIO should file fifty lawsuits demanding to know the employers who force their workers to seek state aid for healthcare.