Lured employers now tax Medicaid (FL Wal-Mart)

Wal-Mart Corp., which is getting millions of dollars in state incentives to create jobs in Florida, has more employees and family members enrolled in Medicaid than any company in the state.

The giant retailer, which has 91,000 full-time and part-time employees in Florida, has about 12,300 workers or dependents eligible for Medicaid, the growing health care program for the poor and the elderly.

According to figures released Thursday by Florida's Department of Children and Families, Wal-Mart and four other large companies that receive state incentives have an estimated 29,900 employees or their family members enrolled in Medicaid.

The figures suggest taxpayers may be double-subsidizing low-wage employment by paying companies to create jobs and by paying for the health care of some of those companies' employees.

"This is another indication of how companies talk out of one side of their mouth about the free enterprise system and private initiative, but whenever they get the opportunity to exploit public resources, they'll do that," said Philip Mattera, research director for Good Jobs First, a nonprofit Washington group that studies corporate incentives.

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/03/25/State/Lured_employers_now_t.shtml

This article is misleading because it gives the impression that this is something new.

House allots $37M for Wal-Mart street
snip>
Bentonville officials have said $37 million would cover widening the street from two to five lanes and connecting it to I-540.

Boozman spokesman Patrick Creamer said the congressman's request for the money was penciled in for $3 million when the bill was in committee.

"It was very unexpected on our end," Creamer said. "It's rare that you get full funding."

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2005-03-25-walmart-street_x.htm

a corporation that is making billions of dollars - and forcing manufacturers to move overseas so that they (the initial corp) can make bigger profits (the prices don't drop - so the old passing it on to the consumer line doesn't fly). So - they are double dipping subsidized - and forcing more jobs (and thus cases of need for govt service) by pushing jobs overseas. Bah!

on their employees and then collect when the employee dies.... whether or not the employee is working for them at the time of death.

The companies selling the policies obviously expect to make money on them,
which means they must make sense actuarially.

That means they *couldn't* be cost-effective for Walmart --
unless there is something about working at Walmart that materially
shortens one's life-expectancy, and Walmart's managment knows this
and is attempting to profit from it.