The Evil Empire Strikes Back

Here's another one for the file on why Wal-Mart is evil. The Wall Street Journal reported last fall that Deborah Shank, a former Wal-Mart stocker was involved in a car accident where she was hit by a semi about 8 years ago now. She ended up permanently brain damaged and in a wheel chair, requiring nursing home care. The trucking company gave her an accident settlement. After attorney's fees, she was left with $417,000 in a trust fund to pay for her ongoing care.

Meanwhile, there was a clause in her Wal-Mart healthcare plan that gave them the right to recoup any money they paid in medical expenses if someone gets a settlement from those injuries. So Wal-Mart sued Shank for $470,000.

Now her expenses are being paid by Medicaid and Social Security (i.e. you and I). Meanwhile the woman has lost her 18-year-old son in Iraq, shortly after he arrived there and due to her brain damage she doesn't always remember that he has died. Her husband divorced her in the hopes that she might be eligible for more money for her care as a single woman. She is not aware of this fact.

Apparently, many companies have a clause in their plans that allows them to pull this kind of stunt, but up until recently it has not often been used. Also, a recent Supreme Court ruling has made it easier for companies to actually proceed with these kinds of cases and get results.

Here is just another way that rising healthcare costs are hurting Americans—not just Shank and her family, but every taxpayer who is now having to bear the burden of the cost of her care so Wal-Mart (who made BILLIONS in profit last year) can put another hundred thousand in their pocket. Nice.

MSNBC's Keith Olberman highlighted this in his Worst Person of the Day segment last night.