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January 13, 2006
Creeping Economic Fascism in Maryland
The Maryland legislature passed a law Thursday that would require Wal-Mart Stores to increase spending on employee health insurance, a measure that is expected to be a model for other states. . . .
Under the Maryland law, employers with 10,000 or more workers in the state must spend at least 8 percent of their payrolls on health insurance, or else pay the difference into a state Medicaid fund.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, in the "land of the free," the government can tell a private company how much it must spend on health care for its employees.
"You're going to see similar legislation being introduced," said Ronald Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a nonprofit [leftist] health advocacy organization, "and debated in at least three dozen more states, and at least some of those states will end up also requiring large employers to provide health care coverage."
Mr. Pollack suggested that he did not expect any groundswell of opposition from corporate America. Most companies, he said, provide insurance and know that the costs of medical treatment for uninsured people are reflected in their insurance premiums. Mr. Pollack said that, by his organization's calculations, the cost of such treatment drove up employer premiums by $922 a family last year. In 2006, he said, the added cost could reach $1,000 a family.
"Those employers should welcome the fact that the companies that do not offer coverage now will be forced to step up to the plate," he said. (Emphasis mine.)
And that, my friends, is the essence of the whole thing: force.
Posted by Mike Tennant at January 13, 2006 11:28 AM
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