State government had thousands of workers receiving Medicaid

OLYMPIA — State government and Wal-Mart had roughly the same number of workers benefiting from the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program in 2004, new state figures released Monday show.

But the percentage of state-government workers on the low-income health-care program was vastly smaller than the percentage of Wal-Mart's workers in Washington state, the state report said.

The numbers figured to further the debate over a measure pushed by organized labor that would force increased health-care spending by large employers.

The main target of the bills has been Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer and a traditional union adversary.

Opponents of the measure think details about state workers receiving low-income health benefits will show that state government shouldn't target certain employers whose workers also use those services.

The information, contained in a government report obtained by The Associated Press, was released by Gov. Christine Gregoire after requests by state lawmakers and the news cooperative.

Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, ranking Republican on the House Health Care Committee, said supporters of the so-called "Wal-Mart bill" should "take a second, sober look at some of the rhetoric" in light of the new information.

A Wal-Mart spokeswoman did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. The company has said more than 615,000 of its 1.3 million workers are covered by company health plans, and says it has taken some 160,000 people off the uninsured rolls.

Earlier state reports showed that an average of 3,180 Wal-Mart workers in Washington were on Medicaid or received the benefits for their dependents in 2004, with a few hundred more on the state-funded Basic Health Plan.

An estimate prepared by nonpartisan state Senate staffers pegged the annual cost of those benefits at about $12 million for the state.

The information released Monday shows that an average of 3,127 state government workers either received Medicaid or had dependents on the joint state-federal health program in 2004.

That cost to taxpayers was estimated at more than $14.7 million.

But state government employs more than 100,000 people, while Wal-Mart has about 16,000 workers in Washington state — making the Arkansas-based retailer's percentage of workers on Medicaid much higher than the state's.