Legislation Important Step in Providing Health Insurance
According to University of California-Berkeley researchers, Wal-Mart's pay and benefits policies have cost California "$32 million a year in health care expenses and another $52 million in food stamps, subsidized housing and other government assistance programs," Sen. Carole Migden (D-San Francisco) writes in a San Francisco Examiner opinion piece. Meanwhile, Migden continues, "Wal-Mart's profits topped $10 billion last year."
Migden writes, "This practice cannot continue, and that is why I have introduced legislation" to require employers of more than 10,000 workers to "spend at least 8% of total wages on health benefits."
The bill "is an important first step toward reversing our health care crisis because it targets 69 giant corporations most able to afford health care for their combined 1.4 million workers," Migden writes (Migden, San Francisco Examiner, 2/23).