Posted on 01/24/2011 2:29:36 AM PST by markomalley
Three local chapters of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)--whose political action committee spent $27 million supporting Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election--have received temporary waivers from a provision in the Obamacare law.
The three SEIU chapters include the Local 25 in Obama’s hometown of Chicago.
The waivers allow health insurance plans to limit how much they will spend on a policy holder’s medical coverage for a given year. Under the new health care law, however, such annual limits are phased out by the year 2014. (Under HHS regulations, annual limits can be no less than $750,000 for 2011, no less than $1.25 million in 2012 and no less than $2 million in 2013.)
The SEIU, with more than 2 million members nationally, includes health care workers, janitors, security guards, and state and local government workers.
The three SEIU locals, covering a total of 36,064 enrollees, are covered by the federal waivers, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
HHS gave a waiver to Local 25 SEIU in Chicago with 31,000 enrollees on Oct. 1, 2010; to Local 1199 SEIU Greater New York Benefit Fund with 4,544 enrollees on Oct. 10, 2010; and to the SEIU Local 1 Cleveland Welfare Fund with 520 enrollees on Nov. 15, 2010.
So far, the Obama administration has issued waivers to 222 entities, including businesses, unions and charitable organizations. Of that total, 45 were labor organizations.
A total of 1,507,418 enrollees are now included in the waivers. More than one-third -- 512,315 – of the enrollees affected were insured by union health plans.
SEIU Local 1199’s health plan put a $50,000 cap on medical expenses for its New Jersey nursing home workers, according to 1199 SEIU spokeswoman Leah Gonzalez. That’s $700,000 under the 2011 limit stipulated by HHS regulations.
In September, HHS announced it would grant waivers to employers to prevent some workers from losing their benefits if the insurer could not meet new health care law’s requirements on annual limits. The waivers are granted by HHS if the department determines “compliance in the interim final regulations would result in a significant decrease in access to benefits or a significant decrease in access to benefits or a significant increase in premiums,” according to a Sept. 3 memo by Steve L. Larson, director of the HHS Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight.
Local 1199, SEIU's Greater New York Benefit Fund, requested the waiver specifically with respect to its separate plan for New Jersey members, according to Gonzalez. This waiver primarily affects low-wage New Jersey nursing home workers whose health care plan provides medical, hospital, prescription, dental and vision benefits.
The New Jersey members now have an annual maximum health care benefit of $50,000. Gonzalez said fewer than 1 percent of members have ever reached that cap, and that those members who did received additional help.
“The members’ health benefits are paid for by the employer and are negotiated through collective bargaining,” Gonzalez said in a written statement to CNSNews.com. “Several years ago, facing limited dollars from the employers for this small group, the members themselves chose how to shape their health plan to get the most out of their coverage.”
Gonzalez added that prescriptions are excluded from the cap. “For example, if a member maxes out from a hospital stay, she/he can continue to get their life-saving medications throughout the year while accessing alternative coverage at low-cost community clinics.”
Neither SEIU Local 25 nor Local 1, nor the national organization responded to CNSNews.com’s request for comment.
The SEIU's Committee on Political Education made $27,829,845.91 in independent expenditures on Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008. SEIU-affiliated groups in Illinois have long supported Obama’s campaigns and endorsed him for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in 2004. In 2008, the national union backed Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. (See earlier story)
The Republican House voted to repeal 0b0z0Care. We all know that it won’t go anywhere.
Here is a suggestion. Vote on equal application of laws and make waivers illegal. That will force the unions and 0b0z0’s waived buddies to either pay or everyone is waived.
In either case, 0b0z0Care will collapse under its own weight.
The Republicans can now defund parts of the bill, including but not limited to, the Individual Mandate, which is already under assault in the courts by more than half the states.
The highlight of the defunding effort should be no funding for the over 16,000 new IRS personnel. We don’t need no more stinkin’ IRS enforcers. In fact, the IRS should be cut, as trimming the government size is one of the requirements demanded by voters in the ‘10 election.
I want to see how the RATs will vote on leveling the playing field for all and how will they justify their vote to the ’12 voters.
If it’s so great, how come all of the Leftist cronies want a waiver?
Let’s all send in 309 million applications for waivers....
Why should some be forced to pay for this and not others? How is that equal protection under this law? It's either mandated or it's not.
The list, ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
ACORN ping.
The union thugs don’t want any part of that ObamaCare Crap. They elected him so he could dump that bs on everyone else.
I just today ran across an article that said there were some that were denied but only a handfull. Of course THEY WERE NOT ABLE TO SUPPLY THE LIST FOR THOSE.
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