Wisconsin Governor Criticizes Wal-Mart Health Care Plan
Posted on January 17, 2006 by webteam
From Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle’s State of the State address tonight:
Even as we expand our commitment to health coverage, we need to make sure that some companies aren’t reducing theirs.
Wal-Mart is one of the most profitable companies in the world, yet it has more than 1,200 employees and dependents on BadgerCare-far more than any other company in the state. And Wisconsin’s taxpayers are picking up the tab.
I want to make this very clear to Wal-Mart and any other company that might be thinking of shifting its health care responsibility to taxpayers: BadgerCare is intended to help working families, not multi-billion dollar corporations.
Tonight, I am calling on the Legislature to outlaw the practice of health care dumping. Companies cannot be allowed to deliberately manipulate the system. If they are dropping coverage for employees they know are eligible for state programs so they can increase profits, there should be serious consequences.
It is unfair … it is unethical … and we should make it illegal.
Click here to read the response from Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director Andrew Grossman.
Click here to read about how Wal-Mart is dumping its employee health care costs onto Wisconsin taxpayers.
Click here to see what other states are picking up the health care tab for Wal-Mart’s employees.
