Some Unions Turning On Obamacare, Say It Will Drive Up Costs After All
I’ll say it again: Today is not a good day for Obamacare. After today’s report that some poor families may be priced out of the Affordable Care Act, potentially leaving 500,000 children without medical coverage, now some union leaders are saying that Obama’s signature legislation will actually drive up costs and make unionized workers less competitive.
The Wall Street Journal reports that though labor unions originally supported the Obama administration’s healthcare plan when it was being debated, the closer we get to fully implementing the Affordable Care Act, the more skeptical and wary they have become.
Some union leaders have turned outright on Obamacare, reporting that the law’s requirements will end up driving up costs for healthcare plans, which will make union workers less competitive. The law gets rid of caps on medical benefits and prescription drugs, which are used as “cost-containment measures” in other privatized healthcare plans.
The ACA also allows children to remain under their parents’ medical coverage plan until age 26.
Some of these union leaders are now asking for federal insurance subsidies for their lower-paid members while remaining on their plans. These subsidies were designed for low-income workers without employer coverage in order to help them buy private insurance, but (and it’s a big but) those subsidies are ambiguously defined.
This “glitch” means, as we reported earlier, that many low-income families will be priced out of ACA coverage. The Obama administration tried, and failed, to solve this problem through the IRS earlier today, and then shifted blame for the “glitch” onto Congress.
Naturally, opponents of Obamacare are thrilled by this new development. The Blaze, a right-leaning political blog, expressed incredulity at some union leaders attempts to “avoid paying for the costs associated with Obamacare.”
What do you think of Obamacare?
