One of the great lies that Wal-Mart perpetrates on our national debate is that it is a paragon of the so-called "free market". In truth, Wal-Mart’s model of low wages and cheap prices could not survive without broad government support, not the least of which is health care.

  You see, most Wal-Mart workers cannot afford the bare-bones, pathetic health care. A family can pay as little as $250 a year in premiums–if it can find the dough to shell out a $4,000 deductible and cough up another $10,000 in medical bills, which was basically the plan they had a few years back that cost them six times more. There are not a lot of Wal-Mart workers who can afford to lay out that kind of cash.

  So, here is where the public subsidy comes in on health care, as a new report shows:

A new report shows Ohio spent $111.5 million in 2007 to cover Medicaid costs for workers who are not enrolled in employer health insurance plans.

Policy Matters Ohio, a liberal think tank in Cleveland, estimates the state covered more than 111,000 workers and their dependents from 50 companies with the highest Medicaid enrollment.

The federal government covered $182 million of the total cost. Researchers analyzed monthly Medicaid enrollment data to compile a list of statewide employers with the most employees who received government health assistance.

  And:

Wal-Mart topped the list with a monthly average of 13,141 employees and dependents enrolled in Medicaid last year.

  This is nothing new for Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart depends on taxpayer-financed health care to keep their workers from dropping dead or being chronically ill. According to Wake Up Wal-Mart, "In 2005, nearly 300,000 Wal-Mart workers and their family members depended on taxpayer-funded public health care at an estimated total cost to American taxpayers of $1.37 billion" and "The Wal-Mart health care crisis will cost taxpayers an estimated $9.1 billion over the next five years"

  Sucking off the public’s dime while it pretends to be for the "free market" is a corporate strategy for The Beast. Wal-Mart does its best not to pay taxes, an indirect subsidy because then you and I pay for the roads, sewers and other infrastructure that makes Wal-Mart’s stores function.

  Finally, an apology: I’m sorry I’m posting about something so inconsequential relative to Sarah Palin’s child’s love-child, the recent irrelevant polls or other things of great national urgency. My bad.