BadgerCare aids Wal-Mart workers ($6.4M also helps McD)

[rodeodance]

This article from WI-mirrows the article a few weeks ago from Florida--the working poor and big corporations!!



http://www.madison.com/tct/news//index.php?ntid=41093&ntpid=3

BadgerCare aids Wal-Mart workers
$6.4M taxpayers' tab also helps McDonald's


Associated Press
May 24, 2005

Wisconsin's tax-supported BadgerCare health care program for the working poor spends millions of dollars each year covering the health costs of employees of some of the state's largest companies, a new report says.


The state Department of Health and Family Services said in the report that the 10 employers with the most participants in the program cost the state about $6.4 million a year.

About 3,000 employees and their dependents were enrolled in the state program from those companies in April, with more than 40 percent of the employees working for discount retailer Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart had 809 of its employees and 443 of employee dependents enrolled in the state program during April, with the cost of providing that care projected at about $2.7 million a year.

Its size, with 26,000 employees in Wisconsin, is going to put

[denverbill]

1. Maybe we should replace Welfare with Wal-fare.

Just seems appropriate, somehow.

[Sinistrous]

2. "WAL-FARE" - Wonderful, possibly powerful term!

Let us all use it whenever and whereever possible.

[Gemini Cat]

6. That's a good one.

Wal-fare, I like it.
Needs to be said far and wide.

[jmowreader]

3. The best part is further down in the piece

A Wal-Mart spokesman said that it takes 180 days for a full-timer and 720 days for a part-timer to become eligible for the Wal-Mart-sponsored healthcare plan. He also said the company does not "encourage" its employees to apply for public assistance.

Hmm...IIRC there are a few DUers who work or have worked for Wal-Mart; all of them note that public assistance applications are in their orientation packets and they teach you how to fill them out during orientation.

Also, what the FUCK is this two-year thing?

[chicagiana]

5. Yeah, and they don't lobby for tax abatement either ...

... they just lobby for lower preferential tax breaks.

[xchrom]

4. all righty then -- lets give more tax breaks

to corporations.

[anotherdrew]

7. BadgerCare? why dont they just call it Worker-Bee maintenance

Why should your employer have ANYTHING to do with your healthcare daamnit? What are we a nation of serfs?

[newyawker99]

8. Hi anotherdrew!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[anotherdrew]

9. hello

I've been reading a lot, but just got around to registering.

[Miss Chybil]

10. Ah, but their stockholders don't need any assistance... and they don't

even want to pay the taxes that will help their workers, either.

[Sabien]

11. Others corporations receiving this Wal-fare are...

McDonalds, Aurora HEALTH CARE, Manpower (the corporate name for pimps - 'er I mean temporary employment agency, 'er I mean "staffing and employment services"), Walgreens, Menards, and Lands End.