Posted on 11/26/2013 8:49:48 AM PST by Libloather
A top Senate Republican is blasting regulations he argues will exempt unions' multi-employer health plans from a key tax under ObamaCare.
Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune (S.D.) pointed to a section of a 255-page regulatory filing and said it would amount to a "bailout" for the labor moment, which has grown increasingly dissatisfied with the new healthcare law.
"Despite endorsing ObamaCare and working fervently to get it passed, unions are now experiencing the ugly reality of this law, and they want out. This exemption is crony capitalism at its worst," said Thune, who is behind a bill to block ObamaCare exemptions for unions.
The Obama administration recently indicated that it would propose exempting certain self-insured, self-administered insurance plans from two of the healthcare law's three-year reinsurance fees.
The policies that would escape the fees include the multi-employer or "Taft Hartley" plans commonly held by union members. Big business is also working to avoid the tax.
The reinsurance tax is meant to generate short-term revenue that will stabilize premiums on the individual market as sick patients enter the risk pool.
The tax applies to all group health plans, but unions and businesses say it will raise their healthcare costs while providing them no benefit.
According to past regulations, the administration only intends to exempt certain plans from the fee in 2015 and 2016. This would leave some groups on the hook for payment in 2014, when the tax will be highest.
You and me.
“At this point, who isn’t exempt from Husseincare?”
Republican voters, that’s who!
Everyone of these exemptions forces all other participants to shoulder more of the financial burden of this atrocity. In this case we have the direct redistribution of wealth from non-union members to union members.
My Mom was an English teacher. I used to complain that she and her cohorts spent 15 minutes teaching us the rule; then 45 minutes teaching us the exceptions.
Last para is the important one.
This move will be yet another that starves Obamacare of money at a moment when it needs that money the most.
The money will have to come from somewhere. It’s quickly moving from a redistubutionist tax and spend proposition to a borrow and spend one.
They figure out a way to cheat the system that they just created and the law abiding folks get screwed.
With an urgent need for a massive tax increase.
They won’t be able to get away with a massive tax increase. Won’t pass the GOP House, and it will be an outright admission of failure.
What they will probably do, aside from borrow and spend, is have the insurance companies jack up their premiums and deductables even higher.
unions are part of the nomenklatura hierarchy.
And higher premiums mean a lot of unhappy voters which BTW they postponed the insurance assessments and premium updates until after the election.
Ya. Don’t ever let the Democrats claim that they are for the middle class. They are screwing the middle class in a big way!
Carveouts are a direct violation of the equal protection clause.
Your brother and sister. Most of the middle class (’cept those who work for the feds). Must of the upper middle class.
Also, those very union workers probably enjoy the most generous benefits of all with their "Cadillac" health care plans. Media needs to ask: How much of the monthly premium is paid by the employee? How much is their co-pay (if any)? How much is deductible (if any)? Do they get to stay on the policy when they retire early (you know, at 49, 52, 55)?
I've tried to find these answers myself, but somehow the details of big union health plans are a big secret! I have come to the conclusion that union employees have not been expected to spend anything on their own health insurance and their own health care (there is a difference, you know). Average Americans are being forced to accept a new health care reality. But, union workers are saying NO, not us! They don't want to spend a dime of their salary or (Heaven forbid) their pension on such un-fun things as health care!
And don’t these very same unions enjoy the very best health insurance policies in the country? How much does the average union worker spend on his h/c premium, out of his own pocket? Compare that to what the average American pays! What is the deductible/co-pay for union plans? Do they get to keep those plans when they retire in their mid forties, mid fifties? Try that in the private sector! I bet all union plans cover dental, vision, hearing, etc., even into retirement. That never happens in the private sector!
Yup. And we, the fools in the private sector, are all funding their excellent health care plans. That is crony socialism for you.
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