"List of shame"

This is an interesting idea.

The state would start naming companies with the most workers enrolled in taxpayer-funded Medicaid programs if Gov. Blagojevich signs a measure that business leaders say would have no impact other than to generate "a list of shame" that would embarrass them.

Under a little-noticed provision inserted into a bill the General Assembly approved last week, officials would create a list of employers whose workers lack adequate private health insurance and must turn to the state for help paying their doctor bills. [...]

But businesses are dubious, fearing a bad rap if they show up on the list.

Um, isn't that the point?

"There's no law saying you have to give your employees insurance," (IL Chamber spokesman) Carney said. "What if every company in the state decided we're not going to have any more insurance? I'd imagine that'd create a huge burden."

If this sort of thing is a "burden," then you'd wonder why the Chamber is so supportive of it.

"These types of bills are aimed at bringing negative publicity to large companies who bring hundreds of thousands of new jobs to this country," said Nate Hurst, a spokesman for Arkansas-based Wal-Mart

Other stories:

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.

Wal-Mart, with about 25 percent of the company's 37,000 workers on TennCare, tops the list of businesses with employees on the expanded Medicaid program. Wal-Mart is the state's largest private employer.

A November 2004 New York Times article cites a study in Georgia that found 10,000 children of Wal-Mart employees were in the state's healthcare program at a cost to taxpayers of $10 million a year. The same article describes a hospital in North Carolina that found that 31 percent of its 1,900 patients were Wal-Mart employees on Medicaid, and an additional 16 percent were Wal-Mart employees with no insurance at all.

Retail giant Wal-Mart tops the list of companies in Alabama whose employees have children on Medicaid, the Advertiser reported, citing state records. Wal-Mart workers' children account for 3,864 children on the Medicaid rolls at a cost between $5.8 million and $8.2 million.

Wal-Mart's survey showed that 5% of its hourly workers receive coverage through Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor.

Among employees who have been with the company more than two years, that number dropped to 3%. And the survey showed that 7% of Wal-Mart employees were on Medicaid three months before joining Wal-Mart. In contrast, 7% of the hourly workers at other retailers in the study were on Medicaid, up from 6% before their employment.

"Wal-Mart does not encourage our associates to apply for public assistance," says company spokeswoman Sarah Clark. "We work hard to keep our associate premiums affordable and think we are doing a good job."