Arizona: Wal-Mart Employees #1 on State Health Care Rolls

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Saturday July 30, 2005 · 6:21 AM PDT

2005/07/30 · 06:21

Close to one of every 10 Wal-Mart employees is getting health insurance paid for by Arizona taxpayers, according to figures obtained Friday from the state.

The nearly 2,700 Wal-Mart workers represent about 1.9 percent of working people who are getting benefits from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.

The company is the largest private employer in the state and has more workers getting state-paid health care than any other.

By contrast, other retailers in the top 15 list of private employers had rates of AHCCCS enrollment among their workers about half that of Wal-Mart's.
- Arizona Daily Star, 7/30/05

Wal-Mart's benefits package is so expensive that most of its employees cannot afford it. Wal-Mart officials have even been caught encouraging employees to apply for state benefits to cover health care costs.

Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott reportedly admitted, "In some of our states, the public program may actually be a better value [than Wal-Mart's health care options]." Wal-Mart spokesperson Ron Bracy recently told the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, "Yeah, we have a lot of people on state rolls. We wish it wasn't so." Wal-Mart took in $10 billion in profits last year alone and has offered no comprehensive and affordable health care plan for its employees that would allow them to leave public assistance rolls.

In fact, their strategy to remedy a situation they claim to regret is not to boost wages or benefits, but to deny there is a problem and spend millions that could go to benefit workers on a public relations campaign to improve their image.
- Pollitical Affairs Magazine, 7/30/05

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Arizona: Wal-Mart Employees #1 on State Health Care Rolls

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