> [full text of memo at
> <http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/business/26walmart.pdf>]
>
> New York Times - October 26, 2005
>
> Wal-Mart Memo Suggests Ways to Cut Employee Benefit Costs
>
> By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and MICHAEL BARBARO
<snip>
> Ms. Chambers acknowledged that 46 percent of the children of Wal-
> Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on
> Medicaid.
<snip>
> Under fire because less than 45 percent of its workers receive
> company health insurance, Wal-Mart announced a new plan on Monday
> that seeks to increase participation by allowing some employees to
> pay just $11 a month in premiums. Some health experts praised the
> plan for making coverage more affordable, but others criticized it,
> noting that full-time Wal-Mart employees, who earn on average
> around $17,500 a year, could face out-of-pocket expenses of $2,500
> a year or more.
"Data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys show . . . that poor adult Medicaid beneficiaries paid an average of $210 in 2002 for out- of-pocket medical expenses.[7] Non-low-income adults with private insurance paid an average of $548" (Leighton Ku and Matthew Broaddus, "Out-of-Pocket Medical Expenses for Medicaid Beneficiaries Are Substantial and Growing," <http://www.cbpp.org/5-31-05health.htm>, May 31, 2005).
Wouldn't unions that specialize in organizing low-wage workers like Wal-Mart workers be better off if they helped all poor to sign up for and defend Medicaid (in the short term), fought like hell for publicly-funded universal health care (in the medium term), and focused organizing and bargaining efforts on other issues like wages, hours, conditions, and dignity (always)?
Yoshie Furuhashi <http://montages.blogspot.com> <http://monthlyreview.org> <http://mrzine.org> * Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/mahmoud- ahmadinejads-face.html>; <http://montages.blogspot.com/2005/07/chvez- congratulates-ahmadinejad.html>; <http://montages.blogspot.com/ 2005/06/iranian-working-class-rejects.html>