WASHINGTON — The National Retail Federation Wednesday publicly launched its lobbying effort for a health care reform bill that rejects employer mandates and emphasizes controlling costs within the existing medical system.
The retailers’ endorsement of the Health Reform Consensus Act should help it stand out from the glut of legislation now under consideration on Capitol Hill, said NRF executives and one of the bill’s authors, Rep. Michael Bilirakis (R., Fla.).
The endorsement was announced at two Washington press conferences Wednesday, following a unanimous morning vote in support of the bill by NRF’s board.
“It’s better than any existing proposal we’ve seen,” said NRF chairman Bernard F. Brennan, chairman and chief executive officer of Montgomery Ward, Chicago. “This bill seems to have the most consensus and the most bipartisan support on the Hill,” as well as being “simple enough so people can deal with it,” he said.
The Clinton plan, Brennan added, is too expensive, is backed almost exclusively by Democrats and “is going nowhere.”
Allen I. Questrom, ceo of Federated Department Stores, Cincinnati, said the Health Reform Consensus Act “maximizes jobs,” while the Clinton plan would eliminate as many as 1 million retail jobs.
“It [the Consensus Act] doesn’t try to revolutionize health care, but it takes care of the public in a better way,” Questrom said.
Questrom and other NRF executives met with Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R., Kan.) Wednesday afternoon to state their concerns about health care and trade. Other retailers in town for the NRF’s annual Washington Leadership Conference met with legislators Tuesday.
The Consensus Act, co-sponsored by Rep. J. Roy Rowland (D., Ga.) and supported by 64 members of the House, would allow individuals to take their health plan with them if they change jobs and prohibit insurance companies from restricting coverage for people with preexisting health problems. Much of the funding would come from streamlining the current system, especially of entitlement programs such as Medicaid, and elimination of “defensive medicine” — unnecessary procedures, such as excessive testing, that doctors use to avoid malpractice suits, Brennan said.
NRF president Tracy Mullin called the bill “a starting point to move [the debate] to a more centrist position.”
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“We expect support for the bill to continue to grow; a lot of people are looking at it right now,” Mullin said. NRF is lobbying for the bill in the House and trying to find a co-sponsor for it in the Senate, she said.
NRF board member Arnold Zetcher, president and chief executive officer of Talbots, Hingham, Mass., said he voted to endorse the plan after a committee at his company studied NRF-compiled reviews of several different health care proposals.
“Small stores are enthusiastic about finding a bill we can support,” said H. James Baum, chairman of NRF’s small stores board and president of Baum’s Inc., Morris, Ill.
The bill’s chances are aided by the fact that it is the only bipartisan bill, with nearly equal support among Republicans and Democrats, Bilirakis said, adding that NRF’s support “could help put it over the top.”
Despite the Washington announcement, Brennan said NRF is focusing most of its health care lobbying at the state level.
“There’s nothing more effective than a grass-roots campaign that gets in front of a legislator on his home turf and explains the impact on his home state,” Brennan said. State retail associations are helping mobilize members, he added.