You might remember my post from last month about how Washington State Legislators want to force Wal-Mart to pay into their socialist healthcare plan to cover Wal-Mart employees who either don’t have insurance or are underinsured.
In 2004, Wal-Mart had 3180 of its employees use government funded health care services for a cost of $12 Million taxpayer dollars. These figures have spent the last three weeks or so on the lips of every anti-Wal-Mart activist across the state.
But it seems now that the shoe has switched feet, it is a bit uncomfortable for those folks as I haven’t heard word one from them on this.
State government had thousands of workers receiving Medicaid
State government and Wal-Mart had roughly the same number of workers benefiting from the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program in 2004, new state figures released Monday show.
The information released Monday shows that an average of 3,127 state government workers either received Medicaid or had dependents on the joint state-federal health program in 2004.
That cost to taxpayers was estimated at more than $14.7 million.
The Seattle Times article that is linked above repeats the fact, at least twice, that while the total numbers may be similar, the State of Washington actually employs more people than Wal-Mart does, as if that matters in a comparison of total numbers and total spent dollars.
If anything, the fact that the government employs more individuals than the foremost retailer in the state should be a damning strike against the government. I can barely remember the last time I actually spoke to a state employee, but I sure as hell remember my last trip to Wal-Mart.
The Wal-Mart employee was courtious and helpful. While neither of those words could be used to describe the Parks Department person whom I spoke to about aquiring some new maps.
And also, why should any state employee be using Medicare? As a taxpayer, I pay one hell of a premium for their healthcare coverage, which, in comparison, the state employees pay nearly zero and complain any time their co-pays may be increased.
I would really like to see how much of my dollar spent at Wal-Mart goes to the company sponsored healthcare plans. I think it would be a testament as to who uses their money more efficiently.
Of course, this being Washington, it wouldn’t surprise me if the people in this story were some of those included in the state employee’s figures,
I recall reading somewhere that every employee, even part timers, are offered the opportunity to participate in Wal Mart’s employee health plan. Some simply choose not too, for various reasons, such as they get coverage from their spouse’s plan.
Makes me think that us taxpayers are subsidizing a plan that’s way too generous if folks are choosing it over private plans.