USA - Wal Mart Backs Health Care Reform

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http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoen...9/daily24.html

Tuesday, June 30, 2009, 10:45am MST
Wal-Mart backs health insurance mandatePhoenix Business Journal


Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is backing President Barack Obama’s push to require that large employers offer health insurance to their workers.

Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) joined the Service Employees International Union and the Center for American Progress economic think tank in voicing support for mandated health coverage.

The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer is Arizona’s largest private employer and has come under criticism in the past for not offering benefits to some of its workers. Wal-Mart has expanded benefits in recent years and supports federal health care reform that would include requirements that employers offer at least some coverage.

“We are for shared responsibility. Not every business can make the same contribution but everyone must make some contribution,” said a letter to Obama signed by Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke, SEIU President Andy Stern and CAP CEO John Podesta. “We are for an employer mandate which is fair and broad in its coverage, but any alternative to an employer mandate should not create barriers to hiring entry-level workers.”

Obama and Congress are working on health care reforms aimed at providing health insurance and controlling costs for 46 million Americans.



While I fall a little on the liberal side of the political spectrum, a lot of the things Obama is doing more than worries me. Wal-Mart backing the health plan is BAD NEWS, this is a ploy by them to force other business that cannot afford providing all their employees with health coverage since Wal-Mart is one of the few companies that would survive such a change change in health care and an effective health tax on employers. This is a Job Killer. health coverage needs change, but not this way.