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01/21/2005: Corporate Welfare.
Approximately 25% of Wal-Mart's 37,000 employees in Tennessee receive their health care from Tenn-Care.
A Wal-Mart spokesman is quoted as saying that the retailer's benefits are "competitive".
If that's true, I'm going to be depressed for the rest of the weekend.
Len on 01.21.05 @ 12:47 PM CST
Replies: 2 comments
on Friday, January 21st, 2005 at 10:11 PM CST, Brock Sides said
I'm not sure that the 25% statistic is meaningful. It does appear that Wal-Mart's insurance rates aren't competitive ... with TennCare rates.
TennCare is designed for low-income individuals, so it's not surprising that low-income individuals find that TennCare offers them a better deal than Wal-Mart. Since many Wal-Mart workers are low income, it's not surprising that it has a lot of TennCare enrollees on the payroll.
I'd like to compare TennCare enrollment rates for low-income full-time Wal-Mart employees with those of other low income full-time workers. That would tell us to what degree the state is subsidizing Wal-Mart's everyday low prices.
And is it really something to be depressed about, apart from the general knowledge that some people have crappy jobs, which you already knew? It could be spun in a different direction: "Socialized medicine is good for business." :)
on Saturday, January 22nd, 2005 at 8:22 PM CST, Len Cleavelin said
Well, I have a low depression threshhold...
In addition to the TennCare rates, I'd like to see the same rates for Wal-Mart vice other low-pay FTEs across the country. From the stories I've read, the problem isn't just in Tennessee.