Bristol Kroger Prepares To Host President For Forum On Reform

BRISTOL, Va. – Midway Street Kroger employees have been working around the clock to get ready for their chance Wednesday to talk with President Barack Obama about health care, which costs their company more than $1 billion per year.

Obama – whose top domestic priority has been a health-care overhaul – is slated to meet at 4 p.m. with the Bristol grocery store’s 87 employees for a town hall-style meeting.

Although no one could say Monday why the Bristol Kroger was chosen as the location for the meeting, it comes as leaders push for progress on health care before lawmakers go home for their August recess. Obama and congressional Democrats are seeking a government health insurance plan that critics say would lead to a federal takeover of the private health insurance marketplace.

On Monday, Kroger employees spruced up the store with a fresh coat of paint on the front awning and freshly scrubbed floors. Many picked up new name tags.

“We want to put our best foot forward,” Kroger Manager Rick Caldwell said, adding that he’s honored the president chose his grocery store to host the event.

He said the store will close from noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday to accommodate the event. Bristol Regional Counseling Center across the street also will close that afternoon, Caldwell said, but all other businesses in the area are expected to remain open.

Wednesday’s event will follow a similar meeting set to take place at a high school gym in Raleigh, N.C.

The visit comes on the heels of the 10th annual Remote Area Medical clinic, which last weekend drew more than 2,700 uninsured residents to Southwest Virginia for free health and dental care. According to totals released Monday, the clinic in Wise County resulted in 5,598 “patient encounters” since many took advantage of several free health services.

U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th, said the RAM clinic was one of the main reasons Obama chose to talk about health care in this region.

“It really does put an exclamation point behind the fact that 47 million people do not have health care,” across the nation, Boucher said.

In a statement e-mailed Monday, Obama spokeswoman Gannet Tseggai wrote, “President Obama is traveling to Bristol to discuss the skyrocketing cost of health care and the need for real reform.”

She did not say why the Kroger store was chosen.

When asked his personal views on the state of health care, Caldwell said he’s been too busy with preparations to sit down and get his thoughts together. But he said he’s happy Kroger offers insurance to most of its associates and store managers.

Both full- and part-time employees in this region can start contributing to their health care plans after 12 months on the job and receive benefits after 15 months, said Carl York, a spokesman for the Kroger Co.’s Cincinnati headquarters.

All told, the company provides insurance to 326,000 people, who are either employees at the chain’s 2,500 stores or their family members, he said. Providing this extensive coverage costs Kroger more than $1 billion per year, he added.

“From our perspective, it’s just an honor for a local Kroger to serve as a forum for such an important issue,” York said, adding that the nation’s health system needs to be reformed.

York said any type of health reform needs to balance the needs of the general public with the costs it would place on businesses that offer coverage.

“We need to fix the system, it’s just a matter of how,” said Jim Lowthers, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400.

His union counts most Kroger employees among its 40,000 members in the five-state area from Maryland to Tennessee.

Lowthers said health care is a huge issue for his union because it puts a burden on its employees and their businesses. Because of this, he said the union has been actively working to promote health-care reform and is glad Obama has been pushing it forward.

But like Caldwell, Boucher and York, Lowthers couldn’t say why the Bristol Kroger was chosen to host Wednesday’s event. But holding the event with union members is a good choice, he said, because “if you want to know what’s going on in the world, ask a worker and they’ll tell you.”

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