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News

July 31, 2009

NRF Calls House Health Care Bill ‘Sure Recipe’ for Job Losses, Asks Lawmakers to Scrap Bill and Start Over

Read full letter
Read NRF Vision for Health Care Reform

For Immediate Release
Contact: J. Craig Shearman (202) 626-8134
shearmanc@nrf.com

NRF Calls House Health Care Bill ‘Sure Recipe’ for Job Losses, Asks Lawmakers to Scrap Bill and Start Over

WASHINGTON, July 31, 2009 – The National Retail Federation today asked the House to scrap its controversial $1 trillion health care reform bill and start over, calling the measure “the biggest anti-stimulus legislation imaginable” and saying it would be a “sure recipe” for further job losses during the current national recession.

“The key to reform is reducing both short and long-term health care and coverage costs without disrupting existing health care. The House bill fails to meet this objective,” NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations Steve Pfister said. “We urge Congress to abandon H.R. 3200 and make a fresh start on a better-calibrated and more-affordable bill.”

“Above all else, we believe that health care reform should avoid driving up labor costs, a sure recipe for much higher unemployment in the midst of a recessionary economy,” Pfister said. “Done wrong, health care reform could well become the biggest anti-stimulus legislation imaginable. We cannot afford bad health care reform.”

Pfister’s comments came in a letter sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and copied to all members of the House.

“NRF strongly favors comprehensive health care reform and universal health coverage, if done correctly,” Pfister said, noting that NRF has pushed for dozens of measures to encourage health care providers to compete on cost and quality as outlined in the NRF Vision for Health Care Reform issued last year. “We have worked hard with lawmakers and stakeholders of every political persuasion to try to help develop comprehensive health care reform we could support.”

Pfister said NRF strongly supports the actions of the Blue Dog Coalition of conservative Democrats and their allies in seeking both short and long-term cost savings, but that more work is needed to secure and expand beyond the agreement reached between Blue Dogs and House leaders.

“Retailers necessarily operate on a short horizon, needing to meet both present payroll obligations and also build and maintain inventory,” Pfister said. “We agree that long-term cost savings are vitally important to our financial future but these are not sufficient to meet retailers’ present day needs.”

Pfister said NRF appreciates a tentative agreement with Blue Dogs to limit the House bill’s employer mandate to companies with annual payrolls of $500,000 and larger rather than $250,000, but that NRF still cannot support an employer mandate in any form because the increased labor costs could lead to layoffs. While the Blue Dog plan is intended to shield small businesses, Pfister said it could have the unintended consequence of discouraging businesses from increasing the size of their payrolls beyond the threshold.

Pfister said NRF continues to oppose a publicly sponsored insurance plan, particularly in a form that would reimburse health care providers at Medicare rates for the first three years as provided in the version of the House bill approved by the Education and Labor Committee and the Ways and Means Committee. While the Blue Dog agreement in the Energy and Commerce Committee version would provide for negotiated rates, NRF believes an open market negotiation without the involvement of the Secretary of Health and Human Services would be a better approach. NRF supports market reform for individual and small-group plans, and believes insurance reform and new national or state-based exchanges should be given an opportunity to succeed without the addition of a public plan.

NRF opposes the legislation’s proposal to limit grandfathering of existing group health plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to five years because of its potential to greatly increase employer coverage costs at the end of the period. NRF also strongly opposes a $540 billion tax surcharge on wealthy individuals approved by the Ways and Means Committee. Pfister said the surtax would hamper small retailers whose business income is taxed as personal income.

The NRF Vision for Health Care Reform position paper proposes a variety of initiatives that would make health care more accessible by making it more affordable, including an individual mandate that would help even out costs between the healthy and sick by requiring workers to accept coverage offered by their employers, malpractice reform, subsidies and tax credits for individuals and businesses, group purchasing arrangements, broader use of computerized medical records and other proposals.

The National Retail Federation is the world's largest retail trade association, with membership that comprises all retail formats and channels of distribution including department, specialty, discount, catalog, Internet, independent stores, chain restaurants, drug stores and grocery stores as well as the industry's key trading partners of retail goods and services. NRF represents an industry with more than 1.6 million U.S. retail establishments, more than 24 million employees - about one in five American workers - and 2008 sales of $4.6 trillion. As the industry umbrella group, NRF also represents more than 100 state, national and international retail associations. www.nrf.com.

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