The Great SNAP/Medicare Scam

[VaughanJB]

So this is how it works: Take Walmart as an example. Walmart posted 169bn of profit in 2025. Walmart employs a lot of people, but it's careful to manage these employees in line with the law. This means, it can be difficult to get a job at Walmart that has more than 30 hours of work in a given week. That's because 30 hours is the threshold for when benefits kick in. Walmart also know the numbers as they relate to qualification for both SNAP benefits and Medicare.

In Nevada, for example, 29% of Walmart workers, and almost 50% of Amazon workers, qualify for SNAP. This is because a) They can't get the hours; b) They are paid a low wage. These companies know that the tax payer, through welfare programs, are going to step in to help these workers make ends meet, and put food on the table. But it doesn't end there, it is estimated that 24% of SNAP benefits is spent at Walmart. Meaning, Walmart pays a low wage and profits from that, and it also picks up additional profit from sales using those government funds.

There are several arguments at play. Some will say that nothing is making these people work at the likes of Walmart for little money. On the other hand, when the likes of Walmart enters a market they tend to kill off competitors and become one of the only mass employers in the area. This is much the same with Amazon. So alternative jobs can be scarce, and hard to come by.

With 169bn in profits, one wonders if Walmart shouldn't be doing more. However, the reality is they are executing a business plan, and there's nothing illegal about it. This is a story of ethics and morals, not law. There is no good reason for Walmart to raise wages for the lowest on the totem pole. As it is, they can pay as little as possible, and allow their workers to claim SNAP and Medicare. They then take 24% of that money through their checkouts, generating more profit.

Which is all to say, nothing is simple, and often times reducing difficulties or circumstances to the lowest common denominator obscures reality.

This is the world we live in, a world where SNAP recipients have been under attack. We hear a lot about people abusing the system, but we never hear about the likes of Walmart and Amazon.

 

[robin416]

When Walmart started to play that game in CA, CA threatened to charge them for the snap benefits that their employees received.

I don't know what happened with that threat.

 

[Jeni]

While some love to blame an employer. reality may be different.
I worked for a Kroger owned store, at the time was second depending on area, to Walmart with employees qualifying for programs.

Most all were hired as part time but if a person was flexible to cover shifts or stay overtime etc you could quickly work your way into full time.

MANY knew the exact cut off of $ as they did not want to lose their " benefits".
Staying below a certain income kept the freebies flowing.
This is FACT I personally witnessed for years. Often saw those who refused extra hours in case they lost .... snap/ rental assistance/ medical thru state.
Often stated Medicaid was better as no one expects a co-pay that store provided health care had. had a full-time employee who tried to get help with school lunches for their kids ... lady from program told them they made like 15 dollars too much so ask for less hours or just leave early.

two sides to every story.

 

[OneEyedDiva]

I was not expecting the content you posted based on the title of the thread. And I'm wondering if you mean Medicaid, not Medicare I ask that because you wrote this...."As it is, they can pay as little as possible, and allow their workers to claim SNAP and Medicare." Their 65+ workers are eligible to file for Medicare anyway. From what I had heard and this search verifies it...these are the only circumstances under which a person is eligible for Medicare:

This is from Microsoft Bing search:
To be eligible for Medicare, you must meet one of the following criteria:

• Age: You are 65 years or older and have paid Medicare taxes for at least 10 years HHS.gov.
• Disability: You are under 65 and have a qualifying disability, receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) for at least 24 months Medicare.
• Specific Conditions: You have End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which can qualify you for Medicare regardless of age Medicare+1.

As for SNAP benefits, I know of at least three or four seniors who were only getting $16 a month. WTH can someone buy with $16 a month?!

 

[Dybbuk]

In the UK we have a tax funded National Health Service. Across Europe National Health Services are in place though with varying degrees of tax funding. A good example is Switzerland which I believe has a very good potential replacement for the UK NHS.

 

[Flarbalard]

$16 dollars will buy (as of today) three 5 lb bags of oranges or 8 lbs of dried beans, or five 5lb bags of flour to make bread, 10 lb bag of carrots and 3lb bag of onions, or three 24 oz containers of plain yogurt, 4-5 lbs of some kind of fresh produce, or three 5 oz( in theory) pork chops, or a whole chicken and some sausage.

$16 dollars in benefits also qualify a person for the fresh incentives program here in Iowa which for every $15 spent on fresh produce purchased with SNAP 15 dollars additional "food bucks" to spend on fresh produce either from a store or participating seller at a farmer's market.

In some cases that can free up enough to afford the co pay on a prescription. The way prices are going though, it wouldn't be surprising if by the end of summer that same $16 may only buy half of that.

 

[Dybbuk]

Why not have tax funded universal health care?

 

[Pepper]

Why not have tax funded universal health care?

Here in USA? Fat chance.

 

[GoodEnuff]

Here in USA? Fat chance.

Medicare and Medicaid are tax funded, just not universal. The insurance companies would absolutely not allow it.

 

[Dybbuk]

Medicare and Medicaid are tax funded, just not universal. The insurance companies would absolutely not allow it.

Who governs your country? The elected politicians, or big business?

 

[Della]

The elected politicians who are terrified of the insurance companies and the big businesses. We need to fix it so that the politicians could get elected without the money those groups give to their campaign One thing we could do would be shorten the allowed period for campaigning the way England does.

 

[Sunkist]

The elected politicians who are terrified of the insurance companies and the big businesses. We need to fix it so that the politicians could get elected without the money those groups give to their campaign One thing we could do would be shorten the allowed period for campaigning the way England does.

Yes, that ^ .

 

[Murrmurr]

Getting employees on SNAP benefits is not a business model.

Corporate businesses offering low-level jobs started cutting the normal 40hr/week to 30 or less when corporate business taxes were increased - in other words, when the gov't started taxing Big Business and billionaires like everybody wanted.

When workers started losing hours, states started losing tax revenue while spending more for social services, so they raised taxes on small businesses, too, and small businesses cut their employee's hours.

Taking Walmart specifically, when their business taxes and operating costs increased, which include taxes, surcharges, and fees on licensing, # of shelves, merchandise, environment/carbon, floor and warehouse per sq footage, and mandatory employee wage and benefit increases, they first did away with their excellent training program. And it was an excellent 2-week program, it really was. They even had a special training program plus an assistant for new employees whose first language was not English.

Next, Walmart got rid of 2 mid-management positions and reduced the number of department employees. Initially, Walmart employed 1 employee per department plus 1 end-cap employee per department. Now 1 employee has to work 2 to 4 departments plus all the end-caps. Clean, stock and restock, fold and re-hang where applicable, arrange and rearrange shelved items, sweep and mop as needed, customer assistance, remove damaged items, sort and tag damaged items in the backroom when you have a few minutes. And that's the minimum.

Lastly, Walmart reduced their security and warehouse employees by 50% or more, and did away with at least one more management level; Assistant District Manager. My son's job back in the early-2010s.

And, of course, they'd stopped selling *Made in the US only* products back when they started taking on way more investors than Walmart's finally deceased founder could even imagine. Or ever desired.

The result; the worst shopping experience on earth at bargain prices, complacent, over-worked, under-trained employees who aren't given enough work hours to see a paycheck they can raise a family on, filthy stores, rampant theft due to a lack of security, and mostly poor quality merchandise.


Employees on welfare is primarily due to 1) reduced work hours due to the previously mentioned increased costs of running billion- and trillion-dollar corporate businesses, and 2) those businesses taking on large numbers of investors and board members, and a few lobbyists if they're wise, who earn their dividends and salaries before almost everyone else earns anything.

I am not a fan of Big Business, but over-taxing big business is stupid. Certainly, they have to pay their fair share based on income, revenue, gains and losses, etc., but taxing (and in some states, double-taxing) such things as per-square-foot, number of shelves, ceiling height, shelf-height, and many, many more is ridiculously counterintuitive. It drives up prices, causes job losses, reduces hiring and worker's earnings, encourages off-shore banking and investment, which damages the economy....it even effects housing. It's a whole big picture with massive ripple effects.

These companies will be the first to replace workers with robots.