Wal-Mart: Healthy?

The debate over Wal-Mart's impact on the public health care system continued yesterday, when Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee defended the company at a media forum organized at its Bentonville, Ark. headquarters.

This article from the Arkansas News Bureau encapsulates the terms of the debate:

Huckabee said 81 percent of Wal-Mart employees qualify for a health benefit, compared to 61 percent of retail-sector workers as a whole.

"When you compare the number of Wal-Mart employees who have insurance to the number of employees of Microsoft, for example, who have insurance, it's not a fair comparison," the governor said.

Among large employers, defined as having 200 employers or more, the average is 66 percent, said Nu Wexler of Wal-Mart Watch, a non-profit group that says Wal-Mart is in need of reform.

"The governor can slice and dice it any way he wants, but Wal-Mart is a huge burden on state Medicaid in his state and others," Wexler said.

The company may offer benefits to 81 percent, but only about 50 percent find the offer worthwhile and take it, Wexler said.

Huckabee also said that the spiraling cost of health care "is not a Wal-Mart issue. This is a national issue," he said, noting that the United States spends 16 percent of the gross domestic product on health care when no other country spends more than 10 percent.Medical spending threatens the economy, Huckabee said.

"It's an economic challenge equivalent to erasing the national debt," he added.

Wexler agreed that health care has national implications, but argued that the world's largest corporation has a role to play in fixing it, and is not helping. ...

[Huckabee] said Wal-Mart has empowered consumers by driving down prices of basic consumer goods, leaving families with more disposable income. Asked if the consequences of low wages and few benefits were worth it, Huckabee asked: "If Wal-Mart jobs are so terrible, why did 11,000 people show up in Oakland, Calif., to apply for 400 Wal-Mart jobs?"

Wexler replied: "We're all for low prices, but there is a social cost. Is saving a dollar a bag on disposable diapers worth giving up health care for your employees?"