Wal-Mart stands out on rolls of PeachCare

[RamblingRose]

Retailer's sign-up ratio far exceeds other firms'


A snapshot of Georgia's program for uninsured children shows that it's packed with kids of Wal-Mart employees.

A state survey found 10,261 of the 166,000 children covered by Georgia's PeachCare for Kids health insurance in September 2002 had a parent working for Wal-Mart Stores.

<snip>

"You have a company increasingly shifting the cost of health care to taxpayers," said Shaun O'Brien, assistant director of public policy for the AFL-CIO. Many Wal-Mart employees, the union says, earn wages of $7.50 to $8.50 an hour — not enough to make benefits affordable.

Wal-Mart, with 1.4 million U.S. workers, is the biggest private employer in America; it now employs more than 46,000 workers in Georgia. The company is not unionized.


...more...

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/0204/27walmart.html

[saigon68]

1. You have a company increasingly shifting cost of health care to taxpayers

Take that happy Walmart Shoppers.

You have to also factor your tax increase for the children of the $6.00 an hour Walmart employee, with the cost of your purchases.

[BiggJawn]

25. No-no, you have it all wrong!

Wal-Mart isn't shifting the costs to the taxpayers, WallyWorld is shifting the cost to the EMPLOYEES.

It's those shiftless employees who are sticking the taxpayer for their kid's insurance....
<HEAVY sarcasm>

Oh, how I wish Costco would come to town!

[rocktivity]

2. Hee hee--great jobs, huh?

A state survey found 10,261 of the 166,000 children covered by Georgia's PeachCare for Kids health insurance in September 2002 had a parent working for Wal-Mart Stores.

That's about 14 times the number for next highest employer: Publix, with 734.

That works out to six percent. Does Wal-Mart employ more than 6% of Georgia's work force?


:headbang:
rocknation

[fob]

21. Read on. That turns out to be 1 in 4 WM employees, Publix

has 1 in 22! Wal-mart is in the lead by 550% over Publix!

[KamaAina]

3. This is your country. This is your country on Wal-Mart. Any questions?

Earlier in the week we had someone here vigorously defending Wal-Mart against a similar report from California. I sincerely hope his Wal-Mart stock continues to go up...

What this is, essentially, is a massive public subsidy to America's largest corporation (measured by revenue). Our tax dollars are going to pay for the insurance that Wal-Mart is too cheap to provide its own employees. This, my friends, is an outrage.

Please, I beg you, find someplace else to shop, while you still can.

[fob]

22. You wouldn't be referring to this barnburner of a thread would you?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1134113

The thread where Ben & Jerry's is attacked for not hiring everyone in the world and WalMart is abused by those who seek employment there?

Yes folks read all the gory details! Logic be damned!

BTW, this report posted above really is the icing on the cake for the thread noted here.

[DuctapeFatwa]

4. Providing health insurance is not profitable for employers

If an employee becomes unusable, there is an ample supply of replacements who are in good working order.

Perhaps the State of Georgia should consider asking Wal-Mart to provide abstinence education pamphlets to their workers to encourage them to leave reproduction to the more affluent.

[w4rma]

14. *I* know you're being sarcastic, but some lurkers might believe you really

believe what you said, DuctapeFatwa.

Walmart, the Red Chinese Retail Outlet, needs to be dealt with immediately. This corporation undercuts everybody, using tactics such as this. The longer this is allowed to go on, the more competitors to Walmart will go bankrupt and the fewer employees will have health insurance and the more power Walmart will gain.

[DuctapeFatwa]

16. Most voters oppose a Living Wage and feel very strongly that

medical treatment should be a commercial product like any other.

This is reflected in both current US policy and the Democratic candidates who are considered "electable" largely because they can be counted on to maintain it.

[Bozita]

27. Doesn't Walmart give employees a paper informing them of social welfare...

... benefits available to the working poor?

[otohara]

5. This is Wrong

my husbands' employer - small business, can barely deal with the rates of insurance going up every year for the selected few employees he can afford to insure. Every year we are switching to another company or co-pays go up.

In CO, medical insurance has gone up more than in any other state.

Fucking Walmart could afford to at least provide these people with RX insurance - something - anything. Instead they get tons of information regarding your nearest government office.

[Logansquare]

6. Georgia voters, get on the horn to your state legislators

This is robbery, plain and simple.

[denverbill]

7. Excellent article. "I want my country back!"

I want back the country where workers worked for the same company from cradle to grave. Where companies actually had pension plans and elderly people didn't have to work until they died. Where everyone had access to affordable health care.

[CheshireCat]

8. Tell your friends about WalMart!

I have started telling friends about Wal-Mart - all about Wal-Mart. Yesterday, one friend decided she would boycott, too.

I have boycotted Wal-Mart for about 12 years. Most of my friends thought I was crazy when I started, but over the years many have come to agree.

Tell the world about the hidden costs of shopping of Wal-Mart.

[saigon68]

26. Walmart= Red China's retail outlet

The garbage they sell there hurts everyone. Their self-serving commercials are retching

[toopers]

9. Tell me again,

Why should companies be forced to pay insurance for thier employees?

[randome]

10. Because this is America.

It's the custom here.

[stevedeshazer]

11. Because the government refuses to provide it n/t

[Jeff in Cincinnati]

12. Because every other civilized nation on earth does it

[maxanne]

13. a better question

is - Why does working at WalMart cause poverty?

[CheshireCat]

20. Good question maxanne!

I will have to use it - if you don't mind.

[w4rma]

15. Because America has no single payer health insurance program (n/t)

[DiverDave]

17. What? no snappy comeback?

Come on, out yourself.
Tell us your view of why it's GOOD for people to work full time and still not be able to get their kids teeth looked at.
I am so sick of this fucking corporate greed I could just vomit.
and I am sick of enablers like you. what you got against people living a decent life?
TELL ME!! but you won't, Up yours, go away.

[prodigal_green]

18. They shouldn't

The government should.

I happen to work for a pretty progressive firm and have good benefits. I spent ten years without health insurance so I know the difference. My brother's company (meaning the one he owned) couldn't afford health insurance for its employees (or himself or his family for that matter)--so of course they moved to jobs that did.

For all their blather about small business being the engine of the economy, etc., it is bizarre that they don't recognize that expecting companies to pay for health care *hurts* entreprenuership. Health insurance was originally offered by companies as an incentive for the most talented employees at a time when healthcare and/or insurance weren't prohibitively expensive, then it became the norm, now, it is forcing talent to get stuck at companies big enough/wealthy enough to afford to insure their people.

Would we expect corporations to pay for our children's tuition? Same thing.

Single payer!

[DiverDave]

19. So how about laying the blame where it belongs?

The stock market goes down, health insurance goes up.
So who do you blame?
Yeah, lets wring our hands and just let people die.
And, you are comparing apples and oranges.
small company- big multi-billion dollar one.
Pretty easy to see through you too.

[prodigal_green]

24. My point

Is that the government should be providing comprehensive healthcare benefits like every (other?) civilized country on the planet.

People's health should NOT be tied to the stockmarket--that is my point.

I'm just really surprised that the rah-rah capitalists don't understand that putting the burden of healthcare on private (or publicly held) companies hurts competition.

My mother can't retire even though she is well past retirement age because she can't live without the healthcare benefits her company currently provides. The so-called medicare reform wouldn't do her a whit of good.

I'm not sure I get what you mean about seeing through me. I've lost a few pounds lately, but I don't think I'm quite that thin yet.

[SoCalDem]

23. Not necessarily "corporations" but the government should

WE are the government (or we should be, and they try to tell us we are), and our government SHOULD provide a top notch, world-class education for ALL our kids, and even college or special training beyond high school..

The time is long past, when a person with a high school diploma could live the American Dream (a few do manage it, but most don't)..

In the globalized economy that we rave about, OUR children are the ones getting the short end of the stick.. Other countries saw it coming , and they have put education at the top of their "to-do" list.. We are still arguing about evolution vs creationism..and zero-tolerance for tweezers & nail files..and of course there's always high school sports... Our schools need a kick in the ass before it's too late for another generation of undereducated kids ...

Other countries are stressing math and science and history and languages...and yet we are still stressing "electives" and "creativity" and of course our history books are so "sanitized for our protection", that we should not be surprised that we are finding it harder and harder to compete..Kids graduate without the skills they will need in a global village.

[Dulcinea]

28. So true.

But if we teach kids to think critically, they might not buy what corporate America wants to sell them.

And that's what's REALLY important.