All around the country, people are speaking out about why Wal-Mart needs to change.
Two recent letters to the editor from concerned citizens in Portland and Lewiston show strong support for Fair Share Health Care legislation in Maine.
Craig Saddlemire wrote in the Lewiston Sun Journal:
I read the recent Sun Journal article about state legislation to require large corporations to publicly report the number of their employees enrolled in state funded health care programs (March 2).This seems like a good start, but I would urge our state legislators to take the next step, as other states have done, by requiring Wal-Mart and other large employers who are ducking their health care responsibilities to pay their fair share for health care.
Ultimately, we need a universal health care system, but fair share health care laws are a win-win in the meantime. They expand health care coverage for uninsured workers and families while stopping profitable corporations from shifting health care costs onto taxpayers. They also level the playing field for responsible small businesses.
I hope our state legislators will work to make this happen.
Click here to write your own letter to the editor.
Mike Roland wrote in the Portland Press Herald:
We all know that health care is in crisis in our country.Every year, fewer people are insured through their jobs, and more people are either uninsured or underinsured.
With increasing difficulty, many responsible Maine employers do what they can to provide good-quality insurance for their workers.
But some large corporations like Wal-Mart gain an unfair advantage by refusing to offer affordable insurance to their employees.
This shifts the cost of health care onto the rest of us, and it is just plain wrong.
Through Dirigo Health, Gov. Baldacci has taken the initiative to make good health insurance affordable for more Mainers.
We need to support his efforts.
The real solution, though, is to create a single-payer universal health-care system, rather than to rely on a patchwork of public programs and employers' occasional beneficence.
In the meantime, the wealthiest companies should be required to do their share by providing health coverage to all their workers.
Posted by Laura - May 17, 2006 09:42 AM - Action