33 US States To Consider Employer Health Insurance Bills Similar To Maryland's
last week in Maryland that requires employers with 10,000 or more employees to spend at least 8% of payroll costs on health care or contribute to a state fund for the uninsured, AFL-CIO Legislative Director Naomi Walker said on Thursday, CQ HealthBeat reports. Wal-Mart is the only employer that the Maryland law affects, and similar legislation that other states have begun or plan to consider likely would affect the company (Carey, CQ HealthBeat, 1/19). Walker said that state lawmakers have a "new excitement" about such legislation, adding, "We're hearing stories from around the country of legislators who are fighting amongst each other about who is going to be the one to introduce the bill." According to health care and labor advocates, Washington state lawmakers have begun hearings on such legislation, and Florida AFL-CIO spokesperson Rich Templin said that a bipartisan group of Florida lawmakers is "in the process of putting together the legislative pieces" of such a bill. Walker added that lawmakers in Georgia, Ohio and other states plan to introduce similar legislation. Wal-Mart spokesperson Nate Hurst on Thursday in a statement said that such bills would "fail to control the soaring cost of health care (and) ... cost jobs and slow economic growth." Wal-Mart officials said that the company employs less than one-half of 1% of the 786,000 uninsured Maryland residents (Geewax, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1/20).
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33 SUA membre sã ia în considerare angajatorului de asigurãri de sãnãtate facturi similare cu ale Maryland - 33 US States To Consider Employer Health Insurance Bills Similar To Maryland's - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate