Posted on 03/08/2006 11:38:34 AM PST by jmyrlefuller
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The sales clerk at The Gap, the perfume lady at the department store and the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. cashier would all get health insurance from their employers under a bill announced Tuesday, shifting the cost of skyrocketing health care in many cases from taxpayers to big businesses.
The bill would make New York one of the first states requiring companies to provide health insurance for full-time employees.
The legislation, which has bipartisan support in the state Legislature, would apply to businesses with more than 100 employees and could affect 450,000 workers in the state.
Scores of workers at Wal-Mart and other major businesses often rely on public health programs like Medicaid, said Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, chair of the Assembly Health Committee and a sponsor of the bill.
In 2003, Wal-Mart had the most employees enrolled in the state's public health insurance programs, according to data compiled by the Working Families Party.
Federated Department Stores, The Gap and Duane Reade were also among the top 10 companies with workers enrolled in such programs.
State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno showed some initial support for the bill, saying taxpayers shouldn't have to foot the bill for big companies.
"It's unfair, it's inequitable," Bruno said. He added, however, that he would have to make sure the requirement wouldn't hurt businesses or drive them out of New York.
Under the bill, companies would have to spend an average of at least $3 per hour for health benefits for their work force. State Sen. Nicholas Spano, a Westchester Republican and sponsor of the bill in the Legislature's upper house, compared the legislation to setting minimum-wage standards.
Critics, meanwhile, say the bill will only drive up the already high cost of doing business in New York state.
Republican Sen. James Seward, chairman the Senate Insurance Committee, said he agreed that "something has to be done," but said a government mandate might drive away business.
"The gamble is that employers won't leave or cease operating here. It's pure fantasy to assume that mandating a new cost will do no harm," said Matthew Maguire of the Business Council of New York State.
Alex Navarro, spokesman for the Working Families Party, said retailers like Wal-Mart and Victoria's Secret have no choice but to remain in the market, however.
Agricultural and manufacturing sectors would be exempt from the bill.
Maryland recently passed similar legislation requiring companies with more than 10,000 employees to provide health insurance. Only Wal-Mart is affected by that bill.
Wal-Mart, under attack for its health-care coverage for its employees, last month said it plans improvements that would include expanding the availability of its lowest cost plan and shortening the waiting periods to enroll part-time workers and their children.
Yes, I'd say we are on the socialism slide for sure.
Want to completely de-socialize? Quit using insurance, pay your own bills.
Don't these politicians, and most of the public, realize that consumers pay for everything? Everybody else just passes the costs along to the consumer.
That just means they work off the books, for cash. In the meantime they demand full public benefits.
On the list...
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
And people who don't have insurance use Medicaid or don't pay at all. What's the difference?
Nice to see some one else "gets it"
Like an out-of-control freight train.
If the employers are made to pay the health care, will taxes be reduced by a like amount? Yeah! you can bet your as* they will
They don't use doctors or hospitals at anywhere near the rate they will in they get "free" insurance.
When will people learn that corporations WILL make a certain amount of money or they will go away and take their jobs with them. No one works for free. And not every corporation will operate as a non profit.
Alan Reynolds explains:
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/columns/alanreynolds/2006/02/23/187536.html
They GIVE you a job
Pay you a SALARY
Now someone wants to tell you what you have to do?
No way.
Atlas is not only shrugging, he's ROFLHisAO.
What gets me angry is the Medicaid angle.
Abolish Medicaid and businesses would offer health insurance for their employees. Or employees would buy their own insurance. Even the low-income ones.
What's ironic about this is that New Jersey has basically become a Third World sh!t-hole over the last few decades, but since it is right across the river from both New York City and Philadelphia it actually looks like the Garden of Eden . . . even the part along the NJ Turnpike from South Kearny down through Linden that looks like the inside of a transistor radio to people from anywhere else in the country.
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