Tell your legislators to fund 10,000 Basic Health Plan Slots

It's time to push our State elected officials to do the right thing and pass a budget which restores health care for 10,000 working people in our state -- plus 8,000 children who are currently stranded on a waiting list for health benefits. Our state has a budget surplus and we can afford to do at least this much for Washington's working families.

We firmly believe that large employers need to live up to their responsibilities and provide health care coverage to employees -- and we will continue the fight to make sure they do so. This way, people who truly need this safety net can use it.

To send a message to your legislator, Click Here

Thank Governor Gregoire for Pledging to Pass Fair Share Health Care!

On February 16th, Governor Christine Gregoire declared her support for Fair Share Health Care and pledged to pass Fair Share next year. Write to the Governor and thank her for her pledge of support.

Governor Gregoire will not have the opportunity to sign the Fair Share bill this year. Despite support from a majority of members of the State House -- including Democrats and Republicans from all corners of the state -- House Speaker Frank Chopp blocked the bill from coming to a vote.

But the Governor understands -- like we do -- that everyone pays the price when irresponsible companies like Wal’ÄëMart make billions but refuse to provide affordable health benefits. That's why she pledged to stand with us and pass Fair Share Health Care next year.

To send a message to the governor, Click Here

More Than 3,000 Wal-Mart Workers Get State Health Care

Two confidential reports were released last week to the Washington State Legislature that revealed that over 3,000 Wal-Mart workers were receiving state health benefits. The reports show that these workers received help from the State Medicaid program or the Basic Health Plan (BHP). Rep. Steve Conway said it best in this article by stating, "I think taxpayers should be outraged, they are subsidizing one of the wealthiest corporations in the world."

For the whole story, Click Here

State Taxpayer Subsidy to Wal-Mart Over $9 million in 2004

The Center for a Changing Workforce estimates that state taxpayers paid an estimated $9.25 million for Wal-Mart healthcare subsidies in 2004. Center for a Changing Workforce estimates the cost in the 2005-2006 Biennium to be $21.7-million. The Center also estimates that for each additional store Wal-Mart opens in Washington State, it costs the taxpayers an additional $136,000 per year in Medicaid subsidies alone.

For the whole story, Click Here

Leaked Memo Shows Wal-Mart's Attempt To Bamboozle Critics

Amidst a Wal-Mart public-relations blitz to try to alter public perception about the world's largest retailer, a leaked memo reveals the company's true goals: to cut labor costs even further by hiring more part-timers -- but only healthy ones.

A report in the New York Times describes an internal memorandum by M. Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits, that was leaked to WalMartWatch.com. Chambers recommends hiring more part-time workers (who won't qualify for benefits), discouraging unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart, and cutting 401(k) contributions. She also voices concern that workers with seven years' seniority earn more than workers with one year's seniority, but are no more productive.

“The theme throughout the memo was how to slow the increase in benefit costs without giving more ammunition to critics who contend that Wal-Mart’s wages and benefits are dragging down those of other American workers," the Times reports.

In the leaked memo, Chambers acknowledges that less than 45 percent of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million employees in the United States receive company health insurance, and 46 percent of those employees' children are uninsured or on Medicaid.

In other words, all Americans are subsidizing the world's largest retailer -- and one of America's wealthiest families -- not just through our taxes, but in the form of skyrocketing health care insurance premiums driven by the cost of providing uncompensated emergency-room care to uninsured children.

Chambers' proposed plan would push even more of these costs onto taxpayers. If adopted, it would cut employee benefits further, saving the company more than $1 billion a year by 2011.

In an all-too-familiar example of corporate spin -- and unmitigated gall -- Chambers described the memo, not as an effort to cut costs, but as an effort to give Wal-Mart employees more choices.