We’re normally opposed to state government poking around in the affairs of private businesses. But, when the state of Maine must become a partner in providing health care coverage to the employees of some of the state’s largest and most profitable businesses, taxpayers have a right to the facts.

On Wednesday, state Senate President Beth Edmonds defended her legislation that would require employers with more than 1,000 employees to disclose how many of them receive MaineCare benefits.

Edmond’s bill was prompted by a Sun Journal investigation in November which showed a deep health care divide in Maine. Some businesses and their employees foot the bill for their own health care, while others have shifted that burden elsewhere, particularly to the state.

Their tactics are simple: hire as many part-time people as possible and offer them little to no coverage.

It’s patently unfair, and here’s why:

If you work for an employer that does provide good health care benefits, you and your employer are also paying for a lot more than your care.

Not only do you largely pay for the “charity” care provided by most hospitals, you pay taxes that pay for the health care of the state’s poorest residents. Now you and your employer are being asked to subsidize the Dirigo program to help pay for insurance for the state’s uninsured and underinsured. And, on top of that, you must help pay for health insurance for employees of some of the state’s biggest businesses.

The result is a mounting crisis for the businesses who are trying to do the right thing and sponsor employee health plans. It’s also a burden for their employees who are paying higher and higher deductibles and co-pays for those benefits.

We eventually will reach a tipping point where employers will rapidly start to shed their employee health plans as the costs become more and more burdensome, much the way airlines are now shifting their accumulated pension obligations to the federal government.

If all that sounds unfair, it is, but the unfairness runs even deeper.

The companies that do sponsor these costly health benefit plans are increasingly left competing against businesses that don’t. Acme Widgets must add the cost of its employee health plan to every widget it produces. Clearly, it will have problems competing against widget makers who have managed to shift this cost to their employees or to the state.

Edmonds says her goal is not to “shame” the companies that are using this cost-cutting tactic. We agree. The goal is to provide the public with the facts. If these firms feel shamed by the truth, that’s their problem.

Mainers need to realize which companies support their employees and which do not. They should know when they get a bargain price on a new TV set or toaster oven, they may be paying the difference in their state taxes.