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Wage Campaigns
Living Wage NYC
Kingsbridge Armory
Redevelopment Alliance
Queens Center Mall
Campaign
Retail Action Project
Wage Campaigns
Living Wage NYC
Kingsbridge Armory
Redevelopment Alliance
Queens Center Mall
Campaign
Retail Action Project
Legislation would cut "Wal-Mart Tax" (7/18/05)
Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Jon Corzine and Representative Anthony
Weiner have announced the introduction of the Health Care
Accountability Act (HCAA) to expose the growing problem of profitable
companies, like Wal-Mart, forcing workers onto public health care
designed for the needy. The HCAA bill will shed light on the price all
American workers pay because Wal-Mart fails to provide its workers with
affordable healthcare.Cutting the Wal-Mart Health Care Tax
More than 600,000 Wal-Mart workers go without company provided health insurance, and the "Wal-Mart Health Care Tax" is created when these workers are forced to rely on taxpayer funded public health care. The result is that publicly funded health care for Wal-Mart workers has already cost taxpayers over $210 million. A company with over $10 billion in profits to has shifted their costs onto the public.
The HCAA requires all states to gather and release the number of employees that companies have on taxpayer funded public health care. The gathering and disclosure of this data is critical to estimating the considerable cost taxpayers already bear because of the failure of large, profitable employers who force workers and their families onto public health care assistance.
"Programs like Medicaid provide a critical safety net for low-income women and children, the disabled and the elderly and shouldn't be a profit center for large companies like Wal-Mart," said Senator Ted Kennedy.
In at least 12 states, Wal-Mart has more employees, spouses and dependents on state public assistance than any other employer in the state. In the state of Georgia, for example, more than 10,000 children on PeachCare (the state's health care program for low income children) had parents working for Wal-Mart at an estimated cost of $10 million per year. The next largest employer only had 734 children in the program.
"Americans pay a high price for Wal-Mart's race to the bottom. We deserve to know the truth about the high cost of Wal-Mart's greed," said Paul Blank, Campaign Director for WakeUpWalMart.com.
More than 600,000 Wal-Mart workers go without company provided health insurance, and the "Wal-Mart Health Care Tax" is created when these workers are forced to rely on taxpayer funded public health care. The result is that publicly funded health care for Wal-Mart workers has already cost taxpayers over $210 million. A company with over $10 billion in profits to has shifted their costs onto the public.
The HCAA requires all states to gather and release the number of employees that companies have on taxpayer funded public health care. The gathering and disclosure of this data is critical to estimating the considerable cost taxpayers already bear because of the failure of large, profitable employers who force workers and their families onto public health care assistance.
"Programs like Medicaid provide a critical safety net for low-income women and children, the disabled and the elderly and shouldn't be a profit center for large companies like Wal-Mart," said Senator Ted Kennedy.
In at least 12 states, Wal-Mart has more employees, spouses and dependents on state public assistance than any other employer in the state. In the state of Georgia, for example, more than 10,000 children on PeachCare (the state's health care program for low income children) had parents working for Wal-Mart at an estimated cost of $10 million per year. The next largest employer only had 734 children in the program.
"Americans pay a high price for Wal-Mart's race to the bottom. We deserve to know the truth about the high cost of Wal-Mart's greed," said Paul Blank, Campaign Director for WakeUpWalMart.com.