Colorado lawmakers consider clawing back 'corporate welfare'
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After Congressional Republicans cut Medicaid funding in their "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," Colorado lawmakers are considering legislation which would make large corporations pay a fee for retaining low-wage workers who qualify for the safety net health insurance program.
Colorado is facing a $1.5 billion budget shortfall, largely due to rising Medicaid costs.
Representative Lisa Feret, D-Arvada, said the state cannot afford to keep subsidizing Amazon, Walmart and other corporations pulling in record profits.
"We as taxpayers, as Coloradans, are footing the bill of a lot of these large employers’ health care of their employees," Feret emphasized. "That’s just not OK."
The Colorado Retail Council told the Denver Post companies are already paying their fair share because a significant portion of their taxes goes to fund Medicaid. A Walmart spokesperson said any fees collected under House Bill 1327 would likely be passed along to consumers through higher prices.
Corporations are not keeping wages low because of tight profit margins. According to a recent report, the nation’s top 20 companies paying low wages spent a combined $260 billion buying back their own stock between 2019 and 2024. Feret pointed out if Walmart provided health coverage to all their employees, it would amount to a fraction of 1 percent of their annual profits.
"Walmart having 30 percent or more of their employee workforce on Medicaid, Amazon having 40 percent or more of their workforce on Medicaid, that is overusing a program that is meant to be a safety net program," Feret contended.
The Affordable Care Act requires large companies to offer health insurance to employees who work 30 hours or more per week. But Feret noted many firms have shifted their operations to keep worker hours under the threshold.
"The data actually shows a small subset of those people want to actually be part-time," Feret added. "Most of them, for example, Walmart, 69 percent of their workers want to actually work more hours. They’re just not offered them. They’re not given that chance."
