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Al Norman: Wal-Mart Getting $15.5 Million Health Care Handout In MA

Below, Al Norman writes on the State of Massachusetts’ multi-million dollar health care handout to Wal-Mart, also published on our Battlemart Blog:

Two years ago, Wal-Mart workers and their children cost the taxpayers of Massachusetts $7.2 million for subsidized health care. A new report released this past week shows that this tax subsidy has more than doubled to $15.5 million. In the middle of one of the worst budget crises in state history, health are welfare for large national chain stores are a drag on the state and federal taxpayer.

On February 12, 2007, Sprawl-Busters reported that an annual report released by the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, revealed that state taxpayers in the Commonwealth spent $7,223,580.77 to provide subsidized health care insurance for Wal-Mart workers—the highest cost any employer shifted to the state. The study, “The Use of Public Health Assistance in Massachusetts in FY 2006: Employers Who Have Fifty or More Employees Using MassHealth or the Uncompensated Care Pool,” is the third such analysis of employers who have 50 more workers using public health assistance. A state law passed in 2004 requires the state to produce such studies. The report released in 2007 covered the period July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006.

The analysis estimates that in FY 2006, a total of $234.2 million in public funds were spent on health care for employees and their dependents working for employers who had 50 or more employees subsidized by two major state health care programs: Medicaid and the Uncompensated Care Pool. The state reports estimates that a total of 6,070 Wal-Mart employees and dependents are costing state taxpayers $7.223 million a year. Of that total, 1,038 Wal-Mart employees used the Uncompensated Care Pool, 2,079 Wal-Mart employees were on Medicaid, and 2,953 dependents of Wal-Mart employees, mostly children, used benefits paid for by Medicaid. The cost of Wal-Mart dependents alone came to $4,328,155. According to Wal-Mart, the retailer had 10,785 employees in Massachusetts. Using the FY 2006 figure of 3,117 Wal-Mart workers on Medicaid and UCP, that means at least 29% of Wal-Mart’s workforce in the Baystate received their health care subsidized by the public.

Other national chain stores are high on the list. Home Depot ranked number 9 on the list, with 2,130 employees and dependents on state-subsidized health care, costing taxpayers $2,567,929. Target ranked 11th with 1,982 employees and dependents being subsidized, at a cost of $2,348,794 a year. Other national retailers on the list include Walgreen’s, Sears, Macy’s, Kmart, Brooks, Kohl’s, Albertsons, Whole Foods Market, BJ’s Wholesale Club, JC Penney, Lowe’s, Best Buy, Toys R Us, Filene’s, Lord & Taylor, Old Navy, Victoria’s Secret, and Circuit City. But Wal-Mart holds the distinction of being the #1 highest cost to the state for subsidized health care for its workers and their dependents, and the highest number of workers and dependents using state health care programs.

This week, DHCFP released its use of subsidized health care in state FY 2008, and many of the same national retailers are still dominating the list. The Division reports the total number of employees, their dependents, and the cost of services used, by program, for each employer with 50 or more employees using state subsidized services. The report finds that an estimated $793.7 million in public funds were spent on health care services through MassHealth, the Uncompensated Care Pool, Commonwealth and other subsidized health programs. Just over 302,000 employees received publicly subsidized care at a cost of $490.7 million to the taxpayers. In addition, over 230,000 dependents of these employees received publicly subsidized care at a total cost of $303.0 million. The total subsidy for employees plus their dependents came to $793.7 million. This is almost a 25% increase in cost over the FY 2007 cost of $636.8 million. The number of Employees and their dependents using publicly subsidized care grew by 12.2%.

Wal-Mart remained #1 on the list of large employers with subsidized health care. A total of 4,796 Wal-Mart workers relied on state and federal taxpayers for their health care support. Adding workers and dependents, Wal-Mart cost the Commonwealth $15.5 million. This is more than twice the subsidy of $7.223 million for Wal-Mart workers and dependents in FY 2006. As of March, 2009, Wal-Mart had 11,681 workers in Massachusetts. The new state report means that at least 4 out of 10 Wal-Mart full-time employees are using state-subsidized health care.

A state health care reform law in Massachusetts requires companies with more than 10 full-time workers to have 25% of those employees enrolled in a company plan or pay 33% of workers’ premiums. Companies with more than 50 employees must meet both requirements. Those that don’t meet the thresholds must pay $295 per employee into a pool for the uninsured. In addition to number 1 ranked Wal-Mart, other national chains stores remained prominent on the list: Target was #6 on the list, with 2,479 workers, and a total cost of $5.65 million to the taxpayers; Home Depot, with 1,685 workers on the rolls, ranked #16, and cost taxpayers $4.66 million. Pharmacy chain CVS was #10 on the list, wth 2,276 subsidized workers, and Walgreens was #22 on the list, costing taxpayers $3 million. Among the top 25 companies on the state subsidy list, these 4 retailers cost taxpayers $36 million in FY 2008.

For a complete copy of the new state health care report, go to: http://www.mass.gov/Eeohhs2/docs/dhcfp/r/pubs/09/50_plus_employees_04-09.pdf. Readers are urged to print this report out, and mail it to your State Senator or State Representative, urging the lawmaker to get your state to publish a report of all employers with more than 50 workers that use taxpayers supported health care. There are only a handful of states like Massachusetts which publish such reports. As a result, many local officials fail to consider the net cost to taxpayers of adding more low-wage retailers like Wal-Mart to the state welfare rolls. Companies like Wal-Mart continue to boast about the quality and scope of their health care plans, but as this Massachusetts employer reports shows, 41% of Wal-Mart’s workers turn to state taxpayers to pay for their health care bills. The new Massachusetts report is likely to place more pressure on state lawmakers to require large employers to pay more towards the cost of their worker’s health care. Health care remains a hidden subsidy that local officials rarely factor into their analysis of a superstore proposal.

Posted by Chris C on Monday, April 06, 2009

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COMMENTS

One thing you can say for Al Norman is that he sure does his homework! I’m sorry, but each and every one of these companies can well afford to pay for health insurance for their employees--THEY JUST CHOSE NOT TO. After all, if you can stick it to the taxpayers, WHY NOT?
What this tells me is that the savings at Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Sears, Home Depot, etc are not really savings at all. I may save a few dollars on my everyday purchases, but end up paying those same savings back in my higher taxes.
Wal-Mart and others---IF WE CAN STICK IT TO THE TAXPAYERS LETS DO IT!

All big box stores do is suck the life out of a community.

Jane in N.Y. in
Monday, April 06 at 03:20 PM

I’m sorry, but each and every one of these companies can well afford to pay for health insurance for their employees--THEY JUST CHOSE NOT TO.

And, I suppose a “mom-n-pop” operation would pay the health insurance for their small staff??

Honestly, “Jane of the Village”. your cheerleading simply just doesn’t “do it” ...

bbrd in
Monday, April 06 at 08:30 PM

The following is the winning entry in an annual contest at Texas A&M;University calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term: This year’s term was Political Correctness.

The winner wrote:

“Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end”

R. J. Wiedemann LtCol. USMC Ret.

Reality Check in
Monday, April 06 at 09:07 PM

From a Recon Marine in Afghanistan
It’s freezing here. I’m sitting on hard, cold dirt between rock, sand, shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains along the Dar’yoi Pomir River watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to acave. Stake out, my friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of miles. I also glance at the area around my butt every ten to fifteen seconds to avoid another scorpion sting. I’ve actually given up battling the chiggers and sand fleas, but the scorpions give a jolt like a cattle prod.. Hurts like a bastard. The antidote tastes like transmission fluid but God bless the Marine Corps for the five vials of it in my pack..The one truth the Taliban cannot escape is that they are human beings, which means they have to eat food and drink water. That requires couriers and that’s where an old bounty hunter like me comes in handy. I track the couriers, locate the tunnel entrances and storage facilities, type the info into the handheld, shoot the coordinates up to the satellite link that tells the air comma nders where to drop the hardware, we bash some heads for a while, then I track and record the new movement. It’s all about intelligence. We haven’t even brought in the snipers yet. These scurrying rats have no idea what they’re in for. We are but days away from cutting off supply lines and allowing the eradication to begin. I dream of bin Laden waking up to find me standing over him with my boot on his throat as I spit into his face and plunge my nickel plated Bowie knife through his frontal lobe. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This country blows. It’s not even a country. There are no roads, there’s no infrastructure, there’s no government.This is an inhospitable, rock pit shit hole ruled by eleventh century warring tribes. There are no jobs here like we know jobs. Afghanistan offers two ways for a man to support his family: join the opium trade or join the army. That’s it. Those are your options. Oh, I forgot, you can also live in a refugee camp and eat plum-sweetened, crushed beetle paste and squirt mud like a goose with stomach flu, if that’s your idea of a party. But the smell alone of those ‘tent cities of the walking dead’ is enough to hurl you into the poppy fields to cheerfully scrape bulbs for eighteen hours a day. I’ve been living with these Tajiks and Uzbeks and Turkmen and even a couple of Pushtins for over a month and a half now, and this much I can say for sure: These guys, all of ‘em, are Huns. Actual, living Huns. They LIVE to fight. It’s what they do. It’s ALL they do. They have no respect for anything, not for their families or for each other or for themselves. They claw at one another as a way of life. They play polo with dead calves and force their five-year-old sons into human cockfights to defend the family honor. Huns, roaming packs of savages, heartless beasts who feed on each other’s barbarism. Cavemen with AK-47’s. Then again, maybe I’m just cranky. I’m freezing my ass off on this stupid hill because my lap warmer is running out of juice and I can’t recharge it until the sun comes up in a few hours. Oh yeah! You like to write letters, right? Do me a favor: Write a letter to CNN and tell Wolf and Anderson and that awful, sneering, pompous Aaron Brown to stop calling the Taliban ‘smart’. They are not smart. I suggest CNN invest in a dictionary because the word they are looking for is ‘cunning’. The Taliban are cunning, like jackals and hyenas and wolverines. They are sneaky and ruthless and, when confronted, cowardly. They are hateful, malevolent parasites who create nothing and destroy everything else. Smart. Pfft. Yeah, they’re real smart. They’ve spent their entire lives reading only one book (and not a very good one, as books go,) and consider hygiene and indoor plumbing to be products of the devil. They’re still figuring out how to work a Bic lighter. Talking to a Taliban warrior about improving his quality of life is like trying to teach an ape how to hold a pen; eventually he just gets frustrated and sticks you in the eye with it. OK, enough. Snuffie will be up soon so I have to get back to my hole. Covering my tracks in the snow takes a lot of practice but I’m good at it. Please, I tell you and my fellow Americans to turn off the TV sets and move on with your lives. The story line you are getting from CNN and other news agencies is utter bullshit and designed not to deliver truth but rather to keep you glued to the screen through the commercials. We’ve got this one under control. The worst thing you guys can do right now is sit around analyzing what we’re doing over here, because you have no idea what we’re doing and, really, you don’t want to know. We are your military and we are doing what you sent us here to do. Jack Recon Marine in Afghanistan. Semper Fi

Reality Check in
Monday, April 06 at 09:27 PM

“your cheer leading simply doesn’t ‘do it’…”

Yeah, nobody can cheer like you “bbrd” every time RDS
tries to make a point.

Please let all the curious readers know… do you consider
yourself to be “Someone in USA’s” evil twin, or is he yours?
How long are you going to try to “fool us?”

ScrewedbyWalmart in Anytown, America
Monday, April 06 at 09:52 PM

sorry miss jane al norman does not do his homework and everything he says about wm on here is total and complete b.s.hey jane all your favorite ufcw union grocery stores and other high cost retailers you favor like k-mart,target and etc across america cost millions of dollars more than that because the grocers,retailers and the unions are too lazy to give full time work,enough hrs to qualify for benefits and living wages to all grocery and retail workers.its funny jane you have no problem with all the workers on food stamps and state welfare doles in all your favorite other retailers, fast food joints,ufcw union grocery stores you shop at,but you whine like a little baby with everything walmart does.jane nothing you ever say has any credibility at all.jane these companies cant force workers to accept health insurance and thats what you are too stupid and lack the iq to understand.do your homework miss jane before you ever comment on here again and you and your buddy al norman need to stop falling for the united food and commercial workers union b.s. constantly fed to you on this site.

MATT IN in gresham,oregon
Tuesday, April 07 at 11:50 AM

Jane,

“I’m sorry, but each and every one of these companies can well afford to pay for health insurance for their employees--THEY JUST CHOSE NOT TO.”

I’m sure that there a LOT of things that YOU can well afford, but, JUST CHOOSE NOT TO!!

You people remind me of the person who goes around promising to pay something out of their tax return and keep promising the same money over and over again!! If Wal-Mart paid for everything you people WANT, they would be broke in a day!!

RDS in
Tuesday, April 07 at 05:24 PM

If Wal-Mart paid for everything you people WANT...

We would have true free enterprise instead of the corporate collectivism that we have now.

You may want to check your own ‘reality’, RC. Sourcing an A&M;’study’ is a joke. All Aggies are good for is designing bonfires.

“A better legacy than a Wal-Mart would be a vacant lot.” ~ Linda Bevard

Ken V in Texas
Wednesday, April 08 at 06:57 AM

Ken V,

So, you think that what a FEW people would LIKE, determines what a corporation should and shouldn’t do with their earning or it isn’t ‘free enterprise’? I think you are MISSING what the word FREE means!! Most people would think that ‘free enterprise’ would mean you are free to run your business as best you see fit and what works best for you and your customers, without a bunch of people who couldn’t run a successful business themselves, trying to tell you how to do it!!

Remember, people are FREE to choose where they want to shop and if that’s Wal-Mart, it’s their ‘free choice’!! And, if a company is successful doing what it is ‘free’ to do, why should they HAVE to listen to YOU?

RDS in
Wednesday, April 08 at 11:19 PM

This Is Why I Come Here!

It’s purely for the “entertainment.” You RDS, like this website in general, have become a caricature. I find it hard to believe there is anyone else who believes the surreal crap that spews from your computer. You’re always entertaining and good for a laugh or two!

Since you’re self-promoting yourself as an authority on what “FREE” means, care to share with us what “free trade” means today?

ScrewedbyWalmart in Anytown, America
Thursday, April 09 at 05:37 PM

Screwedby,

“I find it hard to believe there is anyone else who believes the surreal crap that spews from your computer.”

I guess, to a person who finds ‘personal responsibility’ a WACKO concept, it would seem like surreal crap to hear that a person can actually take care of themself!!

“Since you’re self-promoting yourself as an authority on what “FREE” means, care to share with us what “free trade” means today?”

Why?, you wouldn’t understand anyway, as you are for protectionism!! The only ‘free’ you know about, is what YOU get FREE from living off others!!

BTW: I see, you either calmed down or got a new keyboard!!

RDS in
Friday, April 10 at 12:09 AM

As long as Wal-Mart disposable workforce is subsidized by the government it isn’t FREE enterprise. As long as Wal-Mart receives billions in additional subsidies, it isn’t FREE enterprise.

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe. ~ Albert Einstein

Ken V in Texas
Friday, April 10 at 08:37 AM

<a >Hello</a>! http://www.outletradio.com/grantham/archives/000021.html
<a >jonyboy</a> Today’s Republican party continues to display its compassionate side with recent comments from Tennessee Republican Rep

pizOrderszoop in Bangladesh
Monday, April 13 at 12:12 AM

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