Who's leeching off whom?

"Leave them alone, you idiot. Yes, idiot. They are PRIVATE. As in p-r-i-v-a-t-e. They aren't another branch of your government, yet."

Ah, fan mail. This one came to me last week, after I suggested that Wal-Mart should pay more in health benefits for its workers. Or perhaps be forced to by the government, as this company with $10 billion in annual profits keeps foisting some health costs off on taxpayers. Two things became clearer to me since then. One, the extent to which Wal-Mart feeds off the public — that's spelled y-o-u and m-e — is eye-opening.

And yet two, somehow a powerful delusion persists that Wal-Mart is a shining beacon of free-market principles.

"Wal-Mart is kicking butt when it comes to merchandising and pricing," wrote another reader. "Long live capitalism and competition!"

"You're pushing Communist propaganda," accused another. "This movement is just a way the state can unload its welfare costs on a private business."

You get the picture. Wal-Mart: efficient, entrepreneurial. Government: wasteful, parasitic. If only we could stop the parasite from sucking the lifeblood out of another great American success story.

Well Tuesday, Seattle Times reporter Ralph Thomas doused this bonfire of rhetoric with some facts. He got hold of a secret state report showing that more Wal-Mart workers rely on public health-insurance programs for the poor than anyone imagined.

The report makes for illuminating reading, especially when compared to testimony Wal-Mart gave the state Legislature last week. It turns out 10 percent of the company's in-state workers were on Medicaid in 2004 — twice the rate the company suggested.

Another 10 percent got taxpayer-funded health care for their kids. In total, 3,180 Wal-Mart workers got subsidized care. That's nearly double the number of any other company.

Add the fact that 20 to 25 percent of Wal-Mart workers have no insurance at all. It means nearly half its 16,000 local employees are either uninsured or on state assistance.

Or Seattle-based Starbucks. The coffee chain has about the same number of local workers as Wal-Mart. Most of them are low-paid baristas. Yet 10 times fewer of them rely on the public for health-care help.

So tell me again: Who's leeching off whom?

Many of you said it may feel good beating on Wal-Mart, but it won't solve the health-care crisis. And that is true.

But this isn't about the health-care crisis. It's about corporate welfare. It's about how one of the world's most profitable companies has figured out how to get us to pick up its tab.

What to do about that is debatable. But please, can we end this myth that Wal-Mart is the perfect output of our glorious free-market machine?

Because we've been reminded yet again: There's nothing free about it.

Danny Westneat's column appears Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 206-464-2086 or dwestneat@seattletimes.com.