On Wednesday, Wal-Mart fired back against its loudest critics.
The Bentonville, Ark., company blasted the activist group Wakeupwalmart.com, which is sponsored by a labor union, and accused it of attacking Wal-Mart to further its own interests. The company also said Wal-Mart had helped 160,000 Americans move out of the ranks of the uninsured.
``Maliciously targeting one company doesn't address this issue,'' said Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president of benefits administration. ``It doesn't provide one person with insurance or take one person off the list of America's uninsured.''
Wal-Mart's critics were particularly active Wednesday. Wakeupwalmart.com, which was created by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, held news conferences in eight states, not including Florida, to decry Wal- Mart's employee health care coverage. Another activist group, Wal-Mart Watch, announced it is releasing a research report today on what it says are the harmful effects of Wal-Mart's low prices.
Like Wakeupwalmart.com, Wal-Mart Watch is affiliated with a labor union. Its board of directors includes the president of the Service Employees International Union.
Much of the critics' scorn lately is targeting Wal-Mart's health care insurance program. The critics complain that Wal-Mart racks up $285 billion in annual sales but does not provide affordable health care for enough of its 1.2 million U.S. employees.
According to Wakeupwalmart.com, an estimated 600,000 Wal-Mart employees do not have health insurance through the company. Critics say that many of those employees and their dependents then become eligible for government-run medical assistance programs, such as Medicaid.
In Florida, Medicaid provides coverage to low-income individuals and families. Its costs are borne by Florida and the federal government.
According to the Florida Department of Children & Families, about 12,300 Wal-Mart employees or their dependents are eligible for coverage through Medicaid in Florida. That is more than any other employer in Florida.
DCF spokesman Tim Bottcher said that although those Wal-Mart employees or dependents are eligible for Medicaid, they may get coverage through another source.
On Wednesday, Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman confirmed that 568,000 Wal- Mart associates have health care coverage through the company. However, he said that figure is misleading because many Wal-Mart employees have coverage through a spouse's job, through Medicare or through another source. According to an internal Wal-Mart survey, 86 percent of Wal-Mart's employees have health insurance through the company or another source, Fogleman said.
Chambers, the Wal-Mart benefits executive, said Wal- Mart offers health insurance to individuals for as little as $40 a month and to families for as little as $155 a month.
Regardless of who is right, the debate appears to be attracting interest.
Last year in California, voters narrowly rejected Proposition 72, which would have required major employers to provide health insurance for their employees or, at the least, to pay into a state fund to pay for employee health insurance. Wal-Mart was a major target of the failed ballot measure.
In other states, including Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland, legislators have created bills that would either require companies to report how many employees receive government- funded medical assistance, such as Medicaid, or force big employers to increase their level of health care coverage. Wakeupwalmart.com campaign director Paul Blank knows of no such bill that has become law.
In Florida this year, state Sen. Les Miller Jr., D-Tampa, created an amendment to a Medicaid bill that would have targeted big employers such as Wal-Mart. The bill would have required companies with 10,000 or more employees in the state to spend at least 8 percent of their Florida payroll on health insurance costs. If the company fell short of 8 percent, it had to pay the difference to the state.
The amended bill failed in the Senate, Miller said. He created the amendment after hearing how some big employers, such a Wal-Mart, get state tax breaks and incentives while thousands of their employees or their dependents get government-funded health coverage.
``Why are you taking people off the unemployment rolls but at the same time keeping them on Medicaid rolls?'' Miller asked.
