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A federal appeals court upheld a ruling invalidating a Maryland law that would have forced Wal-Mart to spend more on employee health care, agreeing Wednesday that the state law interferes with federal law.

Maryland's law would have required non-governmental employers with 10,000 or more workers to spend at least 8 percent of payroll on health care or pay the difference in taxes. The lower court ruled that the state law was pre-empted by the 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA.

This is a fascinating issue that will continue to plague the country until Universal Healthcare is enacted, whereby all of us collectively share the costs of health care.

In a dissenting statement, Judge M. Blane Michael states:

"In Maryland's words, Medicaid 'has been transformed into a corporate subsidy,'" noting that a study by one North Carolina hospital found 31 percent of Wal-Mart employees were enrolled in Medicaid and 16 percent were uninsured and a Wal-Mart internal company memo acknowledges that 27 percent of its employees' children are on Medicaid and another 19 percent are uninsured.

"The Act's revenue raising component is directly connected to the regulatory purpose of assessing employers that rely disproportionately on state-subsidized programs to provide health care for their employees."

So, is Wal-Mart sucking off the system, feeding on the corporate welfare trough? And how will the Supreme Court rule, if this so-called "Wal-Mart Law" is taken up at the highest court? Wouldn't the Supremes be inclined to let the states decide for themselves?

Finally, since the legislature enacted this law over the veto of the Republican Governor, where are those on the Right who bemoan this sort of judicial activism?

Universal Health Care will eliminate this issue immediately.

The Baltimore Sun has more on this important law.

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