Maryland House override's Ehrlich's veto, forces Wal-mart to insure more!

[LynneSin]

What a great victory in Maryland. This health insurance bill passed overwhelmingly in Maryland basically says that if your business employees more than 10,000 Marylanders then you need to spend at least 8% of your payroll on health insurance or pay into a state low-insurance plan. For not-for-profit I believe it would be 6%

Something like 4 companies qualifed under this law. John Hopkins is a massive hospital/university system and was already meeting the 8%. Lockheed-Martin - no problems, already doing it. Even Giant Food, the massive east coast Supermarket Chain fell into this category and even THEY were already higher than 8%.

Only one business employeed over 10k employees in Maryland and not only threw a hissy fit about the law but somehow managed to control governor Elhlich (a repuke what else) into vetoing the bill.

Thank goodness the house & senate are both controlled by democrats. Hell even repukes were supporting this bill.

As for Wal-Mart?

:rofl:


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/12/business/12cnd-walm.html?ex=1294722000&en=93323c4b8a89b34f&ei=5089&partner=rssyahoo&emc=rss
Maryland House Overrides Veto of Health Care Bill

Published: January 12, 2006
ANNAPOLIS, Md., Jan 12 - The Maryland House of Delegates on Thursday overrode Gov. Robert Ehrlich's veto only hours after a similar vote in the state Senate, approving a bill that would force Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to spend more on employee health care in the state.

The House voted 88-50, with one abstention, in favor of the bill which requires companies with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health benefits, or pay the balance into a state low-income health insurance fund.

Ehrlich is up for re-election - I hope the democratic nominee throws this crap back in his face! Because by Vetoing it he says he'd rather use Maryland tax dollars to subsidize healthcare for companies that surely have enough money in their pockets to qualify.
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[rpannier]

1. So will walmart pull their usual

and close their stores? Or, decrease everyones hours so no one has enough hours to qualify? I wouldn't put it past walmart.

[lynne]

2. I'm not sure hours impacts this as its based on numbers of employees -

- I would guess they will just let go enough employees to off-set the amount they are required to spend.

[snowbear]

3. Good for the Maryland House of Delegates!

Who's the Democrat running against Elhlich?

[madfloridian]

4. DFA Maryland group's post on this at the blog with picture.

http://www.blogforamerica.com/archives/007385.html

"Fair Share Health Care Bill wins on veto over-rides in the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates Today!

Wal-Mart lobbyists took a beating from citizen lobbyists on the Fair Share Health Care Bill in the Maryland legislature, and Democracy for Maryland was on the front lines.

The Fair Share Health Care Bill, often referred to as the "Wal-Mart Bill," requires private businesses with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health care benefits, or contribute the difference to a state health care fund.

The bill passed in 2005, but Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich vetoed it after the session ended. Veto over-rides take place at the beginning of the new session. Bill supporters were not sure that every legislator who voted for the bill last year was still on board.

Wal-Mart had been on my mind, especially after seeing Robert Greenwald's documentary "The High Cost of Low Price." But shortly before Christmas, a call from Chris Warshaw at DFA Burlington jump-started our action on this legislation.

In Montgomery County, we grouped our email contact list according to state legislative districts. We asked members to contact their Senators and Delegates, individualizing the emails for each of the eight districts. Our main message was that taxpayers are footing the bill for Wal-Mart employees whose medical costs aren't covered by insurance.

We hooked up with Maryland for Health Care, a project of SEIU (Service Employees International Union). For those legislators who were questionable supporters, we followed up with more appeals and passed out informational leaflets in their districts.

On the opening day of the session, January 11, we joined other Maryland for Health Care volunteers, put on "I'm a Maryland Health Care Voter" purple stickers, and set out to lobby our Senators and Delegates and do visibility at the State House.

Wal-Mart pulled out the big guns. House Speaker Mike Busch, quoted in the November 17 Washington Post, said "'They've hired the largest cadre of lobbyists in recent history in Annapolis to try to influence this legislation…..It really comes down to whether the legislature is going to succumb to the money and the special interests.'"

Wal-Mart casts itself as a victim here, the lone target of the legislation. In fact, other private employers have more than 10,000 employees, but they already pay at least 8% of payroll in health benefits—their fair share. Those others are Giant grocery stores, Johns Hopkins University, and Northrop Grumman.

We don't know how much Wal-Mart costs Maryland taxpayers. According to the Washington Post (January 12), the AFL-CIO sued to get this information without success. The Maryland legislation gives these examples: A Georgia survey found that children of Wal-Mart employees cost the state almost $10 million per year from CHIP (Children's Health Insurance Program). A North Carolina hospital found that of 1900 patients who were Wal-Mart employees, 31% were on Medicaid and 16% had no coverage of any kind.

In the end, Wal-Mart couldn't buy off Maryland legislators. Winning this victory is so sweet. The press says that 29 other states have similar legislation in the works. Let's hope Maryland starts the ball rolling."

[LynneSin]

7. Maybe if they didn't spend so fricking much money on lawyers & lobbyiests

they could have used that money to easily cover more than 8% of their Maryland workforce.

It was so great to read about DFA's work and to see this bill overturned. I hope that whomever get's the democratic nomination for governor (and I see several great names popping up) that they use this against Elrhich. Because companies like Wal-mart COST states tax dollars since so many people work for them and are do not have any health benefits those people rely on the state and Md taxdollars for their health care.

Give yourselves all a big pat on the back and thanks for the extra information for the thread!!

[OneBlueSky]

5. let's see how quickly Wal-Mart can cut their Maryland workforce . . .

to 9,999 . . .

[snowbear]

6. Is there a Democratic challenger yet in Maryland?

Even before this incident.. it sure seems like Ehrlich hasn't been a popular governor there at all..

Surely they have to have a good Democrat in mind!

[LynneSin]

8. There are several great democrats running who could win

:D

I think one of them is the mayor of Baltimore who is extremely popular in that city. If does what Rendell did in Pennsylvania (a former popular mayor of Philly) he should be able to pull out enough votes in the city to make up for the rural parts of the state

[Kaylee]

9. I posted this question in latest news....someone help me with this

Why would someone be against Walmart paying it's fair share. Why should I as a Maryland taxpayer, pay in addition to my own benefits, the health benefits of their employees through state assistance programs? For the life of me, I can't understand the Republican stance on this issue.

[LynneSin]

10. What if Wal-Mart paid thousands of dollars to you to not do this

What if Wal-Mart threatened to pull out a distribution center they claimed they would build in your state if you somehow managed to veto this bill.

Basically one has to ask what did Ehrlich get out of this by vetoing it. We know Wal-mart's gig - when they lose, they pull out and I could see them pulling out Wal-Mart stores from the state in order to try and destroy MD economy.

I mean, that's what Wal-Mart does - they come in, run over the competition and when they don't get their way they pullout thus destroying the economy even worse.

But what I really don't get is how's come Wal-mart can't do this and yet Giant Food, another large retailer chain not only can do it but was already doing it when the bill passed