Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott took the fight to the top when he told the nation's governors that the company wanted to spend more on healthcare and get more employees onto the company's insurance programs, reports the Associated Press.

He warned, however, that the company could not continue to absorb 19 percent annual increases in health costs as it has over the past three years. He also said the plans in some 22 states to force the company to provide health insurance were ill-advised.

Well, the big retailer has some to play some catch-up. It has long had plans that employees found it hard to qualify for or simply could not afford. But the core problem is not Wal-Mart's - it's having employers pay for health insurance.

It means that employees in prosperous industries or whose jobs are hard to fill will get a much better health plan than people whose jobs are easy to fill. And for many years, Wal-Mart thought of its associates in that category. In fact, the company is probably focusing on the issue now because of all the bad publicity its critics have drummed up.

The news service also reports that former U.N. Ambassador and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young will now head up Working Families for Wal-Mart, the organization formed with the retailer's backing to counter the negative reports on the company.

"They are some of the best entry level jobs that are available to poor people. And they also make products available to the working poor," Young told the AP. True. And a lot of the company's critics are nostalgic for small-town America. Supermarkets were criticized forty or fifty years ago too for driving the neighborhood grocery store out of business.

Those stores were friendly but they were expensive and inefficient for an age of autos and refrigerators. Wal-Mart has triumphed because of its prices and locations, even if its dealings with suppliers are not always pretty.