Better Health Care Together - a loose coalition of businesses, labor groups, and think tanks that includes Wal-Mart Stores, Intel, AT&T, and the Service Employees International Union - is still alive and kicking, executive director Jody Hoffman tells National Journal. But, when three of the group's most high-profile organizations, including Wal-Mart, signed on to a July 1 letter in support of a congressional proposal requiring most employers to provide health care for their employees, some of the diverse group's members weren't on the same page.

"Not everybody was ready to go forth" on the position voiced by Wal-Mart, the SEIU, and the Center for American Progress, Hoffman said, adding that "most of our members were delighted" to see the nation's largest employer make its voice heard on the issue.

Wal-Mart's surprising advocacy for the "employer mandate" rocked the business community, prompting an angry response from the National Retail Federation and grumbling among other business groups, who say that mandating coverage for employees would create devastating new costs.

The Better Health Care Together coalition, which was founded in April 2007, includes General Mills, Intel, the Communication Workers of America, the Committee for Economic Development, Manpower, and Qwest Corporation. Several coalition members declined to discuss their views on the mandate proposal last week, saying that it is premature to comment on pieces of health care legislation while the bills are still being debated in committee.

Jim McIntire, a lobbyist for large temporary staffing company and coalition member Kelly Services, said that his company is willing to keep the proposal on the table, provided that comprehensive overhaul includes plenty of provisions - like health IT requirements, malpractice reform, and comparative effectiveness research -- that would slash health care costs for employers.

"We can accept [an employer mandate] as the price of reform," McIntyre said. "But the caveat there for us would be that we would need to see some fairly robust cost controls."

Better Health Care Together's Hoffman emphasized that the coalition as a whole will not weigh in on specific health care reform proposals before Congress finalizes its plans to finance the overhauled system. But, she said, the coalition remains active and "true to its principles" of advocating for affordable, efficient health care for all Americans.