RI taxpayers pay $5M for corps.' insurance

Pat Crowley has a strong post up at RI's Future, pointing to a state report to indicate how Rhode Island taxpayers are paying more than $5 million (plus about $6M from the feds) to pay for health insurance for workers at some of the state's biggest and more profitable corporations:

As I was driving through Providence today, I heard Our Governor on the Helen Glover “Show” getting the facts wrong again about the State he has run for six years but apparently bears no responsibility for mismanaging (personal responsibility and all).  Helen was guffawing about how silly it is to think that the State should pay people not to work – the much maligned but little understood FIP program.  That got me thinking…. I wonder if she knows, or if the Governor knows, how much we taxpayers give corporations to insure their workers since they are too cheap to do it themselves. ....

$5,127,098 

Where is that money going, you might ask…. 

It is going to Bank of America, and their 382 employees on RIte Care / Rite Share/ or Medicaid.  It is going to the 610 employees of Citizens Bank that are getting our taxes.  It is only 310 folks at CVS (plastic bag, anyone) but 500 Wal Mart employees are piad for by the State.  In total more than 4,000 workers for these corporations get us to pay for the health insurance.  That, my dear reader, is corporate welfare.

You can find the full report at this link.