Unions meet with Obama over health care concerns
Source: Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says he hopes the White House will act within a week to address the growing concerns that labor unions have over the new health care law.
Trumka's comments came after a Friday afternoon meeting between President Barack Obama and labor officials at the White House. Trumka called the meeting a "problem-solving session" but declined to specify exactly what type of fixes were discussed.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_UNIONS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-09-13-17-17-15
SleeplessinSoCal
(9,107 posts)And as a union member, interested in what the act may actually mean.
AnotherMcIntosh
(11,064 posts)OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)quadrature
(2,049 posts)and get to meet with President Obama.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)union members - past and present. And yes he may be one of the 1% himself but so was FDR and he did a great job for the people.
quadrature
(2,049 posts)the union doesn't like Obamacare.
OK, what exactly?
please be as specific as you can be.
thanks
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)The issue has to do specifically with joint employer-union health plans.
starroute
(12,977 posts)OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)They have multi-employer plans that work under the current system. Most construction companies are quite small, so most will be exempt from any employer responsibility requirements. It will lock in the cost advantage of non-union employers and incentivize even more union construction employers to try to bust their unions and quit paying into the multi-employer plans.
In addition, multi-employer plans are NOT the same as insurance companies, yet they are treated like insurance companies under the law because the law makes no provisions whatsoever for any kind of insurance plans except for public ones (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid) and private insurance companies (e.g., Aetna, Blue Cross). Since multi-employer plans are not either, they are being treated on a tax and regulatory basis the same as Aetna. This also disadvantages them and will help lead to their dismantling.
More collectively-bargained plans will fall under the "cadillac tax" even though the workers won't be able to afford to pay a 40% tax on their plans because they don't have "cadillac" incomes.
As for the remainder of the complaints, what you will have is a number of union employers who have low income employees (think justice for janitors campaign, some retail/food employees, some health aides, etc.) who managed to get decent healthcare by virture of being in a union and getting a collective bargaining agreement with decent, employer-provided healthcare. Many of these employers will do what Trader Joe's just did: dump health insurance for those of their employees who would be eligible for subsidies in the exchange, perhaps even giving them a cash allowance. In the end, these low-income workers will end up with more expensive, less comprehensive than that they had before with employer provided coverage (note: this is because the way these plans were designed, it is clear that the silver and bronze levels of coverage are WORSE -- meaning cover less for more money -- than most collectively bargained plans, and low inocme workers won't be able to afford gold level plans).
You can argue that this isn't true and that employers currently providing coverage do not have any more or less incentive to drop coverage than before the law. But that is the basic argument.
And I do think it is true that the law was written without collectively bargained plans in mind. It seemed to assume that all insurance was a "gift" from generous employers rather than negotiated by employers and their employees. It also seems likely that those who had been successful at negotiating good coverage will lose much of it as a result of the taxes and other financial incentives in the law.
quadrature
(2,049 posts)that is what the law says, I don't see
what their income has to do with this.
on top of that, these people are a lot better off
than many people I know
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)Why should anybody pay a tax on what is a human right? Why should you or I pay a tax because our health coverage is more generous than bottom of the barrel coverage? We all deserve appropriate care -- and it is not our fault that health insurance companies charge a lot for it.
Their income has everything to do with it. If you can't afford to pay a 40% tax on your health insurance, then you have to drop the health insurance. Lawyers and doctors and CEOs can afford to pay the tax (or their employers will pay it for them), but steelworkers, carpenters, insulators, laborers, electricians and others do not. They have a good chance of ending up worse off under the law.
Yes, there are people who don't have adequate health coverage. The answer is not to impose financial incentives so that we all regress to the lowest coverage possible. the answer is to bring everyone up to the full coverage level.
Your argument sounds a lot like a right wing meme that tells us to be thankful for the minimal we get and to be jealous of workers who do make a decent living. their answer? Tear down unions and public sector pay so that we are all below where we should be. the progressive answer? Let's make sure we ALL have a decent life, with decent housing, good education, quality healthcare, opportunities for recreation. NO one deserves less.
Moreover, the President already made exceptions under the law for employers (no responsibility payments in 2014 as the law requires), so it isn't sacrosanct. There is no reason changes can't be made to help workers as well. "What the law says" is apparently a moving target. What do you think of a president who makes exceptions for employers and none for employees?
quadrature
(2,049 posts)$15k per year.
people being discussed here are pumping
$10K (in benefits)plus per year in to the hands
of the 1 percenters.
driving up the cost for everyone.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)not put the burden on other working stiffs. You seem to be speaking from the viewpoint of one of the robber barons
Trajan
(19,089 posts)Not a big fan of this poster .... a hard, libertarian viewpoint that I find appalling in a progressive forum ...
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)That we should make some workers worse off so we can lower the mean? Why don't we make sure those who are the worst off do better instead of taking away from those who are able to bargain for better?
Your argument makes no sense. It's very Joe the Plumber.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)NickB79
(19,233 posts)I'm in the Teamster's Union, and my representatives were there to discuss this with the President. I and my coworkers are most assuredly not the 1%; we're lucky to be classified as solid middle class most days.
These men and women are doing good work trying to protect millions of hardworking Americans, and deserve praise, not scolding.
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)WASHINGTON (AP) Low-income workers on union health plans are not eligible for the same federal subsidies available to those who buy insurance in the new state health care marketplaces, the White House said Friday.
The decision is a disappointment for labor unions, coming shortly after top union officials met for more than an hour with President Barack Obama to press their case that subsidies could be extended to union-sponsored plans.
Labor leaders have complained for months that without the subsidies, the Affordable Care Act would drive up the cost of some union plans, leading employers to drop coverage and jeopardizing health coverage for millions of union members.
The White House cited a Treasury Department letter saying there is no legal way for union members in multiemployer group health plans to receive subsidies. In a statement, the White House said it would work with unions and encourage them to offer their multiemployer plans "through the marketplace, on an equal footing, to create new, high-quality, affordable options for all Americans."
Read the rest at: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/obama-meet-union-leaders-health-care
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)By making them exempt from the subsidies due to their membership, it may drive some of them out of the union. Pretty clever ploy by the 1%
OrwellwasRight
(5,170 posts)The 1%.
Pterodactyl
(1,687 posts)Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)good one.
Edit to add link
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3662548
Why would anyone think the president is working for the 1%?
Pterodactyl
(1,687 posts)Yeah, that's it. An infiltrator.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)but insurance companies are happy
so everything is A-OK