It seems like every day brings another industry to heel in the health reform debate. Doctors, hospitals, insurers and drug makers have all signed on (with caveats and exceptions) with the Obama Administration to help contribute to the massive cost of financing reform. Reform costs might well run somewhere between $1 trillion to $3 trillion or more. Not even Dr. Evil could count so high or be quite so ambitious. Even if everyone gets nicked “just a little” toward the cause, that’s a lot of industries bleeding in the midst of this deep recession. Whatever happened to economic stimulus? Is this the anti-stimulus act of 2009?
Last week’s big fish landed was a big retailer – Wal-Mart. We at NRF–and many of the broad range of retailers we represent–were not amused. It’s not that Wal-Mart isn’t entitled to its views and positions: our members and retail non-members (Wal-Mart is not a member of the NRF) are certainly encouraged and entitled to them. But as I said any number of ways last week (including on Fox Business, below), Wal-Mart is an outlier – albeit a very, very big outlier – in the health care reform debate. Our job to protect the health care reform interests of retailers small and large just got a little more difficult after the decision of the world’s largest retailer to embrace employer mandates. We beg to differ with their position.
We will continue to fight on to help salvage reasonable reform that can work for everybody from the grotesque creations Congress is putting together. Perhaps we are naïve, but if we can lower the cost and improve the quality of care, focus on prevention and management of chronic diseases, reform the individual and small group insurance markets to help make universal coverage accessible and affordable to all, and gradually bring in the uninsured to basic (i.e. not Cadillac) coverage, then we will have accomplished true health care reform. No backroom deals for us, please.
6 Comments
I understand the NRFs reaction to Walmart’s stance, but it is reactionary! As a retail executive who has seen the endless spiral of uncontrolled healthcare costs, I am 100% in favour. Attempting to prevent this wave is like stuffing a finger in a dike hole. The general populous is in favour, countless large organizations are in favour, & the ruling party is in favour.
The NRF should get on board & help to build the new model.
I disagree with retail executives looking to the people through amazingly increased taxation to take away their health care costs. Those that are really going to be hurt by this type of legislation are the workers of this country who are going to have to pay much higher “premiums” in the way of taxation for less healthcare. There are no free rides. The way to improve healthcare is to control costs. Not government run health care. Plus any health care reform that does not require the Unions to participate is harmful to the average person out there working. If it was such a great program the Unions would want their workers to be part of it.
Wal-Mart decision to support the new Administrations health care mandate seems to be a strategic move to have a huge financial impact on their competitors. Or another points to ponder: Could it be that a former board member of Wal-Mart, Hilary Clinton (the original health care reform queen) http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/us/politics/20walmart.html , or one of the current Board members (below) have any influence on this decision.
Aida M. Alvarez
Former Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration and a member of President Bill Clinton’s Cabinet from 1997 to 2001
The founding Director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, the financial regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, from 1993 to 1997
Humph? See anything worth checking into?
Thanks for the feedback. NRF has been a strong participant in the reform process — produced a platform for health care reform in January 2008. We also devoted hundreds of hours to Sen. Kennedy’s “workhorse” group and Sen. Baucus’ roundtables. As I noted, we still hope to salvage positive reform from the mess on Capitol Hill.
We continue to work with the committees of jurisdiction and have suggested amendments to the pending bills on both the House and Senate-side. This doesn’t solve the fundamental problem — the underlying bills are quite bad and should not become law. Congress needs to go back to the drawing board … and we’ll be ready to help them when they get there.
I amazed at the National Retail Federations opposition to this. While mandated health insurance coverage is only one part of what must be done, it is an essential part of the puzzle. Without ensuring that everyone is covered, reform is doomed to failure. Mandating coverage will ensure that all companies are treated equally.
If Obama’s plan is so good, why are the unions and washington politicians not going to bo on it? I think that tells the story. Aslo, they say we can keep our current plans, but you will not be able to get a new private plan 90 after Obama’s plan takes effect.