The United States Chamber of Commerce has asked legislators across the country to vote down the so-called “Wal-Mart” bill which would mandate the amount of money large employers pay for health care.
"Targeting big companies with politically-motivated health care mandates on a state-by-state basis is not only unfair, it is illegal," said Chamber President and CEO Tom Donohue. "These bills may prompt other states to try their hand at setting national policy, but they do nothing to address our nation's mounting health care crisis."
The Wal-Mart bill, which is being pushed by AFL-CIO affiliates in 29 states, including New York, is based on legislation in Maryland which requires large employers to spend a certain percentage of they payroll on health care or pay a tax.
The proposal is similar to a bill pushed by the hospital workers’ union two years ago that would tax employers not proving employee health insurance benefits as much as $3000 per employee.
The money raised from the SEIU bill would have paid for new hospital projects and another major expansion of taxpayer-funded health care.
“This ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to health insurance does very little, if anything, to control the skyrocketing costs of coverage or improve the quality of care,” the U.S. Chamber said in a release. “These proposals unfairly target a small segment of employers, and will likely result in businesses moving out of the affected states.”
The Chamber said lawmakers at all levels of government should be focusing efforts on lowering existing health care costs and helping small business owners find affordable coverage for their employees.