Lawmakers Wage National Campaign to Hold Wal-Mart Accountable

The AFL-CIO announced plans on Jan. 5 to help launch a national campaign that takes aim at Wal-Mart’s dismal healthcare program, which forces employees to turn to public healthcare and costs taxpayers billions.

As part of the “Fair Share Health Care Campaign,” state lawmakers are preparing to introduce healthcare legislation in 31 states. If passed, the laws will require large corporations such as Wal-Mart to increase spending on employee health insurance.

Because of Wal-Mart’s high healthcare premiums, many workers employed with the nation’s largest private employer cannot afford its healthcare plans. Forty-six percent of the children of Wal-Mart’s 1.33 million workers are either uninsured or on Medicaid, according to Wal-Mart’s own information. Fewer than half of it employees have health care coverage on the job.

Instead, they turn to public programs, which cost taxpayers some $21 billion a year, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan private foundation that researches health care issues.

“Why should a company like Wal-Mart – which made $10 billion last year alone — be able to force taxpayers to foot the bill for their health care costs?” Sweeney said.

Jessie Smart of Alliance, Ohio, worked at a local Wal-Mart store from 2000 to 2003 and says that when she was hired, store managers told her the available health insurance would be affordable on her salary – but it wasn’t.

“It took just about all my pay but a few bucks,” said Smart. “We were forced to go to the state of Ohio Medicaid to get health coverage for our children.

The laws would require that corporations such as Wal-Mart to devote 8 percent to 11 percent of their payroll to health insurance or contribute a fee to a state fund.

For more information on the Fair Share Health Campaign, visit www.afl-cio.org

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