The irony of Walmart's health exchanges

Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes. Take Walmart. Its profitable business model requires hiring only part-time workers and paying them minimum wage with no benefits -- including no health insurance.

Now Walmart wants to open its own "health insurance exchange" under Obamacare. Walmart already runs its own medical clinics and pharmacies.

When it comes to using Walmart's buying power and marketing power to negotiate with insurance companies to give its customers a good deal on health insurance, that's just dandy and a valid reason for Walmart to flex its free-market muscles.

So why can't Walmart do the same for its own employees' benefit? In state after state, impoverished Walmart employees receive more Medicaid and food stamp benefits than any other company. That's right: U.S. taxpayers subsidize health coverage for Walmart's employees by Walmart's design; meanwhile, Walmart plans to turn around and sell health coverage to U.S. taxpayers. Huh-what?!

And Walmart's opening health insurance exchanges at its stores is doubly ironic, because the same "free-market" forces that allow it to negotiate cheaper insurance for its customers, are exactly the same forces that would allow the U.S. Government, under a single-payer health insurance system, to win even better deals for all of us. But then that would be goddamn "socialism."  Whereas it's "capitalistic" to overpay for the same thing.

And oh, by the way, the Walton family that controls Walmart is wealthier than the bottom 40 percent of Americans, combined. God bless America!  

P.S.  Read Ralph Nader's recent wonderful open letter to Walmart CEO Mark Duke here.