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Wal-Mart: Sacrificing Morality for a Low, Low Price
So, most anyone with half a brain these days, who doesn’t also have a healthy sense of denial, already knows about Wal-Mart’s health insurance problems. There is ample evidence to suggest that the company engages in legal, though arguably unethical practices, holding employees just under the required hours necessary to trigger health-insurance entitlement and then only providing it with outrageous premiums. What’s more dispiriting, however, is Wal-Mart’s long-standing policy of encouraging workers to enroll in federally backed health care programs, like Medicare and Medicaid, passing the burden on to the American citizenry in the form of higher taxes.
So, when a state finally gets up enough nerve to challenge Wal-Mart’s practices, and actually passes a law meant to help out both the taxpayers and the folks who work at Wal-Mart, it almost comes as no surprise that a court would strike down the effort. The law, which was to take effect in January, would have required employers with over 100,000 employees to spend at least eight percent of its payroll on health care, or pay the differences in taxes. The district court, however, nullified the law, holding that — by requiring Wal-Mart to track and allocate benefits for its Maryland employees in a different way from how it keeps track of employee benefits in other states — it “imposes legally cognizable injury upon Wal-Mart.” The problem, it appears, is that the law would’ve treated Wal-Mart differently in Maryland than other states do, in violation of ERISA.
So, I suppose it’s just a matter of getting the other 49 states to go along with a similar measure, which is about as likely as Wal-Mart voluntarily offering better health benefits. But, at least you can still get your loaves of bread for under a $1.
