The current "uproar" among state lawmakers over the "discovery" that some full-time employees, such as many Wal-Mart workers, are enrolled in Medicaid places "the goals and achievements of the '90s welfare reform ... down the memory hole," Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Andrew Cassel writes in an opinion piece. According to Cassel, welfare reform in the 1990s was based on the theory that "it was better for government not to abruptly cut off benefits such as Medicaid and food stamps when people took jobs, but rather offer them as supplements to entry-level wages." Although Wal-Mart has annual profits "in the billions," they amount to about $6,000 per employee -- "less than many families pay for a year's worth of health insurance" -- and, in the event that Wal-Mart expanded health benefits for employees, the company would have to increase prices or lay off workers to offset the cost, Cassel writes. He adds that the "sudden outrage" among state lawmakers over "workers on Medicaid" is because the "unions that represent workers at Wal-Mart's competitors are annoyed" by the labor practices of the company, which "resists attempts to organize its workers." He concludes, "Their annoyance is understandable. What I don't understand is why the rest of us ... should care" (Cassel, Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/5).

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