Wal-Mart still top user of
state health care funds
Washington taxpayers
will pay $18.6 million in
2006 to subsidize world’s
largest corporation
Hoping Your
Holidays Are Filled
With Happiness
ATPA
Administrators of
Employee Benefit Plans
1305 SW 12th Ave.
Portland, Oregon 97201
(503) 274-1600
Peter Herrling
Tom Weston
Pati Piro-Bosley
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Two new
state surveys show Wal-Mart still ranks
No. 1 in Washington for the number of
employees using public health care
programs, even though it is not one of
the state’s largest employers.
An analysis of the report by Seattle’s
non-profit Center for a Changing
Workforce projected the cost to state
taxpayers at $18.2 million for 2006,
based on state survey reports released
earlier this month.
The January and June 2006 surveys
by the Health Care Authority and the
Department of Social and Health Ser-
vices counted 3,194 Wal-Mart employ-
ees either enrolled in Medicaid or the
Basic Health Plan (BHP), or with en-
rolled dependents. There were an addi-
tional 2,943 dependents enrolled. The
agencies placed the total cost to state
taxpayers at more than $1.5 million per
month, based on 2006 budget figures.
While Wal-Mart is once again the
largest beneficiary from state health
care programs, it is not the largest em-
ployer in the state. Boeing, Microsoft,
Safeway and Kroger each have more
employees, but all four of the largest
employers combined have fewer em-
ployees using public health care pro-
grams than Wal-Mart.
The cost of Wal-Mart’s state health
care subsidies for 2006 exceeds:
• The combined cost of health care
subsidies to all of its major discount
store competitors: Home Depot,
Costco, Sears, K-Mart and Target.
• The combined cost of health care
subsidies to all of its major grocery
store competitors: Safeway, Fred
Meyer, Albertsons, QFC and Haggens.
“Wal-Mart’s ads claim ‘our people
make the difference’,” said David West,
director of the Center for a Changing
Workforce. “And the company calls it-
self a ‘family-friendly’business, but this
report reveals that it’s Washington’s tax-
payers who really make the difference
when it comes to taking care of Wal-
Mart employees and their families.”
In January 2006, the Washington
State Senate Committee staff estimated
the cost of Wal-Mart’s combined Med-
icaid and Basic Health Plan health care
subsidies at $12,100,464. Based on the
new agency reports, the previous esti-
mate was 50 percent too low.
The new figures show that 11 per-
cent of Washington Wal-Mart employ-
ees are in the adult Medicaid program.
That’s more than double the figure
Wal-Mart claimed existed in a recent
internal memo. Another 11 percent of
the company’s employees have chil-
dren enrolled in the Medicaid kids pro-
gram.
A majority of Wal-Mart’s employ-
ees who are Medicaid beneficiaries
were working full-time (35+ hours per
week), according to a January 2006 re-
port based on an analysis of the 2004
numbers by the Seattle Times. At Wal-
Mart’s average wage of $9.68 an hour,
full-time employees can qualify for
Medicaid in Washington. Workers at
the other companies on the list were
primarily part-time workers.
The number of Wal-Mart employ-
ees on Medicaid and the BHP in 2004
were slightly higher — 3,636 on both
Medicaid and BHP, but because the
agencies used a different method to
count employees and dependents this
year, comparisons to 2004 aren’t mean-
ingful. The 2006 numbers are a large
jump from 2002, when a state survey
found 794 Wal-Mart employees as
Medicaid and BHP clients. This year,
the comparable number is 1,512 direct
clients (not counting dependents), a 9
percent increase from 2002.
During the same time period, the
company’s employment increased by
about 30 percent, from 12,000 to
16,000.
In the 2006 session, the Washing-
ton State Legislature considered, but
did not act on legislation which would
have required Wal-Mart and other large
employers to contribute more toward
the cost of employee health care.
W
armest
wishes
this
Holiday
Season!
President:
Earl B. Kirkland
Vice-President: Gary D. Kirkland
Vice-President: Martell F. Blake
Sec.-Treasurer: Clair C. Anderson
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
DECEMBER 15, 2006