Health care reform will force job losses: NRF calls upon lawmakers to reject legislation

The National Retail Federation today asked lawmakers to reject health care reform legislation expected to receive a vote in the House this weekend, saying the measure would drive up labor costs to the point of forcing job losses and that a “transparent procedural ploy” for passing the package would harm Congress’ reputation. NRF said action on a House “rule,” the underlying legislation and related procedural motions will all be counted as key votes in NRF’s annual ranking of lawmakers on issues important to the retail industry.

“‘Deeming’ legislation of this magnitude passed without a direct vote will further tarnish Congress’ reputation and will likely draw future legal challenge. We will count the vote on the rule to consider H.R. 4872 as a key vote on H.R. 3590 despite the transparent procedural ploy.”

“NRF has worked tirelessly to promote effective health care reforms that would lower the cost of medical care and expand access to coverage,” NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations Steve Pfister said. “We are disappointed by the direction of the congressional debate, particularly its punitive focus against employers. It is an economic certainty that if labor costs significantly increase, retailers – who operate on razor-thin profit margins – will have no choice but to reduce the size of their workforces. This is an outright tax on jobs, a dangerous strategy when our economy so clearly needs to grow through job creation. Health care reform in its current form will become the biggest anti-stimulus legislation imaginable.”

“We are also troubled by the extraordinary procedure by which this legislation is proposed to be considered,” Pfister said. “ ‘Deeming’ legislation of this magnitude passed without a direct vote will further tarnish Congress’ reputation and will likely draw future legal challenge. We will count the vote on the rule to consider H.R. 4872 as a key vote on H.R. 3590 despite the transparent procedural ploy.”

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

The House is expected to vote as soon as Sunday on whether to send H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – the health care bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve – to President Obama for his signature. But rather than voting directly on the bill, the House is expected to vote on a “self executing rule” resolution that would simultaneously “deem” the Senate bill to have been passed by the House and also set rules for consideration of a second bill making amendments to the Senate bill. Those amendments would come in H.R. 4872, the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010.

Pfister said NRF strongly opposes the Senate legislation because of its lack of greater and more immediate cost savings for employer-sponsored health care coverage, its conditional mandate for employers to provide insurance coverage to full-time workers, and higher taxes that would pass through to both employers and consumers, among other reasons. The House reconciliation bill would make some positive changes, removing penalties for waiting periods between 60 and 90 days before employees become eligible for health coverage, for example. But the measure would also greatly increase penalties under the employer mandate and would count part-time employees in coverage threshold calculations.

Pfister said NRF will continue to seek comprehensive health care reform that would help the retail industry voluntarily provide high quality health coverage to employees in a more affordable and cost-effective manner.