Wal-Mart is a pretty easy target of criticism. And that's for some valid reasons.

One of them is the fact that 4,722 Wal-Mart employees and their dependents are in medical assistance programs in Wisconsin. The employees are about 18 percent of the company's workforce in the state.

Those Wal-Mart employees and their dependents cost the state government money — about $14 million a year, according to Wisconsin Citizen Action, a state consumer advocacy group.

In response, Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay, has introduced a bill in the state Legislature that would make Wal-Mart and other businesses with more than 10,000 state employees reimburse the state for the cost of their workers on medical assistance.

It's an understandable reaction. It's $14 million in a state budget that could use the money in a lot of different ways.

It's understandable, but it's misguided. As much as Wal-Mart can be criticized for its policies and its profits, it's unfair for a law to single out it or any equally large employer. It's a case of two wrongs not making a right.

Why just the large employers? There are probably a lot of smaller employers that pay low wages and have some employees in state medical assistance programs. Put them all together and it, too, would make up a lot of money.

But we feel differently about that, don't we? Nobody is in favor of taxing small businesses more, are they? We're trying to help them compete and succeed.

And there's a bigger issue here — why health care costs are so high, especially in Wisconsin, and the pressures that all businesses are under to finance them.

The percentage of Americans who are covered under employee-sponsored health insurance has dropped from 64 to 60 in the last five years. Each year, more people are uninsured. The "Wal-Mart problem" is only one symptom of a sick health care system.

Put all the public pressure you want on Wal-Mart and similar large, profitable companies that are lacking in health insurance coverage for their workers. They deserve it. Expose the problems. Make noise.

Yes, a law that targets Wal-Mart and makes it reimburse the state is certainly understandable. But it's as equally unfair.