Health Care Bill Among Deadline Casualties

By Adam Wilson And Brad Shannon, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.

Feb. 15–A top state labor union priority — a “fair share health care” bill that targeted the employment and health care practices of Wal-Mart — died Tuesday. Stunned labor leaders said it wasn’t the end of the issue. They’d insisted all week that they had the votes to pass House Bill 2517 in the Democrat-­dominated House. The issue has arisen in 31 states as a result of a concerted labor campaign.

“We’ll be back and back and back, until this issue is solved,” said Dave Schmitz, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21, which led a charge by most of the state’s labor groups in the Legislature. On Monday afternoon, Schmitz literally was working up a sweat trying to get the bill approved before Tuesday’s 5 p.m. cutoff. Twenty-nine hours later, Schmitz was still camped out in the Legislative Building Rotunda. But he wasn’t sweating: He was crestfallen. The defeat was a major disappointment to its legislative champions, too, including Rep. Brendan Williams, D-Olympia. They were thwarted not so much by Republicans or Wal-Mart or any of their traditional opponents, but by an ally, Speaker of the House Frank Chopp, D-Seattle. “Frank Chopp, I think, has made a terrible mistake,” said Robby Stern of the Washington State Labor Council. “It’s a mistake from a policy perspective and it’s a mistake politically.” But Chopp dismissed any possible downside to blocking the bill, saying he “enjoyed the vigorous discussion” he had with labor on the issue. He said he doubts there will be repercussions for him as speaker — even though roughly 40 members of his 55-member caucus favored a vote on the bill — or with labor’s support for his caucus in the future. Unions had united behind the effort along with state hospitals and a senior citizens group, while the state’s major business and retail groups united behind Wal-Mart in opposing the bill. Bill backers said employers like Wal-Mart are jeopardizing health benefits for everyone by pushing their employees onto taxpayer-subsidized insurance such as Medicaid and the Basic Health Plan and, in effect, lowering the competitive bar for benefits offered by rival companies. The bill would have required companies with at least 5,000 employees to spend 9 percent of payroll on health care or pay a similar amount into a state fund. Business groups fear the bill could be broadened next year to lock smaller companies into costly mandates they cannot afford. Chopp downplayed his differences with labor. He noted that other labor-friendly bills he moved forward, such as an unemployment insurance revision, affect 300,000 more people than the Wal-Mart bill would. Chopp also said his focus all along has been on legislation that will improve the number of residents with health insurance — first with his goal of covering all children in the state by 2010, using a sliding-scale subsidy, and secondly by using the state’s purchasing power to lower costs for medications and insurance for consumers. The failure of “fair share” — also known as House Bill 2517 — came as the Legislature’s major cutoff fell on the 37th day of session — when bills had to win approval from the chamber in which they originated. Bills required to implement the budget are exempt.

With that deadline driving the activity, the House and Senate had been a flurry of activity, including long nights and full sessions Saturday. By Tuesday, the two chambers had combined to approve a total of 611 bills. In a sign the Democrats and Republicans can find some common ground on the Wal-Mart issue, the House did pass one bill that drew bipartisan support. HB 3079 lets two of the state’s health care-providing agencies collect data on the job status of people who receive Medicaid or insurance through the subsidized Basic Health Plan, providing information needed to show why employees of companies like Wal-Mart are getting state benefits, Republicans and Democrats say. Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum, said the data might stop what he called “demagoguery” on the “fair share” bill. Other options for compromise also were considered. Some Democrats suggested the House turn the “fair share” bill into a referendum for state voters in the fall, but Chopp said opinions are mixed on that option and he doesn’t favor it, either. In the meantime, labor made a muscular push to pass the “fair share” bill. Organizers held rallies, called legislators, paid for a $100,000 advertising campaign, and walked the halls of the Capitol for two days without stopping.

“We already have a company at the north end of my district that is draining the vitality of our small businesses,” Williams said Monday, standing on top of the sundial between legislative office buildings before a crowd of about 100 union members and supporters. Williams railed against the Wal-Mart in Hawks Prairie and a planned store in Tumwater. “It is absolutely unconscionable that this new employer will drop down next door to grocers that are paying living wages and health benefits to … employees,” he said. “It’s unconscionable that they will drop down next door to Costco, which is paying its employees a living wage and providing health benefits to its employees.”

But, like Schmitz, Williams was less energetic Tuesday evening, after it was clear that Chopp could not be swayed on HB 2517. “I felt heartsick, having grocery store workers who are thanking me, and I couldn’t get anything done on their behalf,” Williams said. According to a legislative report, Wal-Mart has 3,600 employees on state-subsidized health plans, more than twice as many as any other employer. The cost for those employees is more than $11 million a year, according to the report. Safeway, another employer on that top 10 list, drew up a letter of support for the health care bill. Wal-Mart spokeswoman Jennifer Holder has disputed the report’s numbers, saying they precede improvements the company has made in insuring its workers. Wal-Mart also has said the unions — which have tried and failed to recruit Wal-Mart workers — are using the legislation to attack the company. Holder could not be immediately reached for additional comment Tuesday evening. For UFCW retail and grocery workers — who enter negotiations with Safeway, Fred Meyer and Albertsons in about a year — the bill represented a chance to establish a bottom line for health care, similar to the minimum wage. “I really believe it’s about the erosion of our health care,” said Paul Henry, a Renton QFC worker. “I don’t want my ethical employer who pays for my health care to say, “˜I don’t want to pay for health care, either.’ I want that to continue for the people who come after me.”

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.

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