Union Big: Labor Won’t Support House Passing Senate Bill

[kpete]

Source: The Plum Line

The Plum LineGreg Sargent's blog
Union Big: Labor Won’t Support House Passing Senate Bill

House to pass Senate health bill as is? Forget it, a top labor leader says.

AFL-CIO legislative director Bill Samuel tells me in an interview that labor won’t support any efforts by the House to pass the Senate health bill in its current form — creating major complications for one of the key solutions Dems are contemplating in the wake of their huge loss last night.

“We don’t want the House to pass the Senate bill,” Samuel said a few moments ago by phone. “We would not be in favor of passing the Senate bill without fixing the problems that we’ve identified.”

Labor’s opposition to this solution is not wholly surprising, because labor is adamantly opposed to a number of provisions in the Senate bill, such as the “Cadillac” tax and state-by-state, rather than national, exchanges. But Samuel’s declaration is noteworthy, because it renders the odds that House leaders will pursue this route remote indeed — forcing them to search for other solutions.

Samuel said that right now, labor viewed only one route forward as acceptable: Creating a bill in the Senate that would address labor’s concerns and passing it through reconciliation, while simultaneously passing the measure through the House.

Read more: http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/labor/union-big-labor-wont-support-house-passing-senate-bill/

[rwheeler31]

1. Terrific so we get nothing.

[Recursion]

2. "Nothing" is better than "worse" NT

[mbperrin]

3. We got nothing when the single payer folks were excluded from the table.

Single payer is the only system that actually delivers healthcare.

Everything else delivers insurance company profits.

[Plucketeer]

4. Exactly!

Hell, we're paying for the uninsured now as it is. We're just gonna pay MORE for it if this bill passes!

[Romulox]

7. Have never seen one of those plays in which a guy sells his soul for riches or power?

This is how it always turns out.

[Freddie Stubbs]

8. Most union members already have health insurance, and they will be damned if they are going to pay

for someone else's.

[LiberalFighter]

10. I would support it if it resulted in the cost of my premiums going down.

As an active member I would not be paying premiums but it would allow my bargainers to bargain for other wages or benefits.

As a retiree I would support it if it resulted in lower costs and would allow our current plan to be used for supplemental or other possible benefits.

[madmom]

11. This union family has this so called "health insurance" it was at one time one

of the best. Now we have to pay for it, but we can't afford to use it. So yeah, tell me how good we have it.

[galileoreloaded]

9. can't figure out what we were going to get????n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

5. I would prefer Labor to hold their position than Insurance Cos and Big Pharma to win out.

[Romulox]

6. I knew when they said that "unions" supported this thing it was flim flam. nt