Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Article Note: On Wal-Mart and Health Care Costs

Citation for the article:

Green, Joshua. "The New War Over Wal-Mart." The Atlantic June 2006: 38-44.

Read in print.

I mostly wanted to make a note of this article because some of our freshman composition classes deal with topics related to Wal-Mart, under the broader topic of globalization. One of their textbook features a unit on this too. At any rate, this looks like an interesting article to point out to some of them in the future. The author looks at how health care costs will affect Wal-Mart down the road, as they are affecting firms like General Motors. His argument is to gradually move towards a universal health care system while showing to companies like Wal-Mart that such an approach is more cost effective down the road. While he is in favor of a method to require people to carry health insurance, similar to current laws for having auto insurance, the argument is compelling. In my opinion, we probably could do better with a universal system with a government base, but I know to many it smacks of socialism. To me, it's just taking care of your own. But as I said, overall, the argument is interesting, and it may be of interest to some of my students.

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