By RANDOLPH HEASTER

Missouri and Kansas are among the 31 states where the AFL-CIO is pushing for legislation to require big companies to spend a certain amount on their employees’ health insurance.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney held a news conference last week announcing the campaign that would set a minimum that big employers would be forced to spend on their workers’ health benefits. The amount would be a percentage of the company’s total wages, and those who fall short of that minimum would pay the difference into a state fund to provide coverage to uninsured workers, such as Medicaid.

Sweeney said the AFL-CIO is undertaking this push at the state level because of the national political climate in Washington.

"A problem this big deserves a national solution, but the Washington of Tom DeLay and Bill Frist isn’t listening to working people, so we’re going to take it state by state — much like we’ve done in trying to raise the minimum wage," Sweeney said. "We cannot afford to stand by and wait for the federal government to take action on these issues critical to working families, and we won’t."

The AFL-CIO’s proposal is based on a bill that currently is being debated in Maryland. That bill would require companies with 10,000 or more employees to spend at least 8 percent of its payroll on health-care benefits. The bill is commonly known as "the Wal-Mart bill," because the retail giant is the only employer of that size in Maryland not meeting that standard.

Sweeney said companies like Wal-Mart are shifting the burden of providing health insurance to the taxpayers as well as the employees of responsible companies that provide health insurance whose premiums are soaring.

"The bottom line is that our health care system is broken, but it didn’t just split open," he said. "Big companies like Wal-Mart are pulling it apart and profiting at taxpayers’ expense."

To emphasize the point, the AFL-CIO’s news conference included Jessie Smart, who worked for Wal-Mart from 2000 to 2003 and relied upon Medicaid .

"Wal-Mart said their health insurance was affordable, but it wasn’t," she said.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. released a statement responding to the AFL-CIO’s campaign, saying that more than 75 percent of its employees have health insurance through the company, a spouse’s plan, or Medicare. Wal-Mart said its full- and part-time employees are eligible for health insurance at affordable monthly payments and criticized the AFL-CIO for playing politics with the health-care issue.

"The challenge of soaring health care costs is bigger than one company," Wal-Mart’s statement said. "Solving this problem requires leadership from businesses and government. Rather than attacking Wal-Mart, Washington, D.C. union leaders should be offering solutions that will reduce the cost of health care in America."

Herb Johnson, secretary-treasurer of the Missouri AFL-CIO, said Wal-Mart becomes the lightning rod on this issue because of its size.

"I don’t like the outfit by any means, but the truth of it is that Wal-Mart’s bigger than everybody else, which is why they have the most people without health insurance," he said.

Johnson said Missouri’s bill will be introduced by Rep. Tim Meadows of Imperial, Mo., and the union group is still seeking a senator to do the same.

"I think the chances of passing this are zero, but it can draw attention to the needs that citizens have for health insurance and the fact that they’re unable to provide it for themselves," he said.

Jim DeHoff, president of the Kansas AFL-CIO, agreed.

"I think it’s got a lot of debate going on this," he said. "Different things could be proposed to make this more congenial for both sides."

DeHoff said Kansas’ current proposal calls for employers of a certain size, which hasn’t been determined, to pay a minimum of 11 percent of total payroll in health benefits.

Johnson of the Missouri AFL-CIO said the percentage in the Missouri bill has not been set.