Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers

Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (Full Version)

All Forums >> [Community Discussions] >> Dungeon of Political and Religious Discussion

Message

Phydeaux -> Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 3:54:57 PM)
Dear Leader Reid and Leader Pelosi: When you and the President sought our support for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), you pledged that if we liked the health plans we have now, we could keep them. Sadly, that promise is under threat. Right now, unless you and the Obama Administration enact an equitable fix, the ACA will shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class. Like millions of other Americans, our members are front-line workers in the American economy. We have been strong supporters of the notion that all Americans should have access to quality, affordable health care. We have also been strong supporters of you. In campaign after campaign we have put boots on the ground, gone door-to-door to get out the vote, run phone banks and raised money to secure this vision. Now this vision has come back to haunt us. Since the ACA was enacted, we have been bringing our deep concerns to the Administration, seeking reasonable regulatory interpretations to the statute that would help prevent the destruction of non-profit health plans. As you both know first-hand, our persuasive arguments have been disregarded and met with a stone wall by the White House and the pertinent agencies. This is especially stinging because other stakeholders have repeatedly received successful interpretations for their respective grievances. Most disconcerting of course is last week’s huge accommodation for the employer community—extending the statutorily mandated “December 31, 2013” deadline for the employer mandate and penalties. Time is running out: Congress wrote this law; we voted for you. We have a problem; you need to fix it. The unintended consequences of the ACA are severe. Perverse incentives are already creating nightmare scenarios: First, the law creates an incentive for employers to keep employees’ work hours below 30 hours a week. Numerous employers have begun to cut workers’ hours to avoid this obligation, and many of them are doing so openly. The impact is two-fold: fewer hours means less pay while also losing our current health benefits. Second, millions of Americans are covered by non-profit health insurance plans like the ones in which most of our members participate. These non-profit plans are governed jointly by unions and companies under the Taft-Hartley Act. Our health plans have been built over decades by working men and women. Under the ACA as interpreted by the Administration, our employees will treated differently and not be eligible for subsidies afforded other citizens. As such, many employees will be relegated to second-class status and shut out of the help the law offers to for-profit insurance plans. And finally, even though non-profit plans like ours won’t receive the same subsidies as for-profit plans, they’ll be taxed to pay for those subsidies. Taken together, these restrictions will make non-profit plans like ours unsustainable, and will undermine the health-care market of viable alternatives to the big health insurance companies. On behalf of the millions of working men and women we represent and the families they support, we can no longer stand silent in the face of elements of the Affordable Care Act that will destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans. We believe that there are common-sense corrections that can be made within the existing statute that will allow our members to continue to keep their current health plans and benefits just as you and the President pledged. Unless changes are made, however, that promise is hollow. We continue to stand behind real health care reform, but the law as it stands will hurt millions of Americans including the members of our respective unions. We are looking to you to make sure these changes are made. James P. Hoffa General President International Brotherhood of Teamsters Joseph Hansen International President UFCW D. Taylor President UNITE-HERE

Phydeaux -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 3:56:23 PM)
Duh

Politesub53 -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 4:14:00 PM)
Is Obama to blame for unintended consequences, or is it Congress for forcing a fudge on the issue. It seems to me your administration is trying to keep both sides happy and building a wonky bridge in the process. Whats taking place is companies offering shorter hours to get out of financial obligations.... Nothing new there. The latest outrage in the UK is the giant Pharma companies scamming the NHS once a patent expires..... sell the patent to a sister company, re brand...re price and dupe the taxpayers. so no sytem is perfect

Phydeaux -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 4:22:09 PM)
Yes, Obama is to blame for unintended consequences. He passed what 2700 pages of bill, that they had to force through with damn near a party line vote, and after having to bribe two senators to vote for it. (Google - Lousiana purchase) He had the hubris to pretend that you could add 30 million people to healthcare rolls without increasing costs. he sold it to the american people saying it would lower the cost of healthcare by $2000. He lied in saying that if you liked your healthcare - you could keep it. When the regulations clearly said it wasn't true. He said if abortion coverage was against your moral beliefs, reasonable carveouts would be provided. He delayed the employer mandate - where the law gives him no authority to do so. Lies, lies, lies.

Politesub53 -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 4:27:44 PM)
Lies and opinon are not the same thing. You glibly overlook workers being exploited for profit.

Phydeaux -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 4:50:44 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Politesub53 Lies and opinon are not the same thing. You glibly overlook workers being exploited for profit. Look man, its not an opinion that this was a lie. The bill itself said that if any feature of a grandfathered insurance program changed including the price that insurance program would no longer be eligible. Here in the US, there are changes to formularies all the time, as drugs go out of style or as new drugs are invented. (Not allowed). Prices change with ever fiscal year. Features can change as a result of collective bargaining. So it pretty much is a flat out lie that if you liked your coverage you'd be able to keep it. Look man, I'm not here to argue the fundamental tenets of capitalism. If you want to talk about exploitation of workers open a different thread. But, If the most staunch democratic allies are saying "hello! this bill is a train wreck" there is a real good chance this bill is a trainwreck.

Politesub53 -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 4:57:43 PM)
I`m not your man, but still. The bill is a train wreck, i even said as much, but it isnt all down to Obama.

dcnovice -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 5:10:55 PM)
FR Fwiw, Googling the first sentence from the letter led to a host of conservative outlets. And I don't see any mention of it on the Teamsters' own website. Interesting.

Moonhead -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 5:18:27 PM)
Does this mean that the Unions are no longer evil unAmerican Marxist scum out to destroy the country, then?

Politesub53 -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 5:19:57 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Moonhead Does this mean that the Unions are no longer evil unAmerican Marxist scum out to destroy the country, then? Obviously not, overnight they have all become capitalists and are against workers rights. [;)]

KYsissy -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 5:35:00 PM)
It is on Teamsters local 355 website http://www.teamsters355.com/mobile/index.cfm?zone=/unionactive/view_page.cfm&page=35520News

dcnovice -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 5:41:47 PM)
quote: It is on Teamsters local 355 website Thanks!

dcnovice -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 5:45:28 PM)
quote: Does this mean that the Unions are no longer evil unAmerican Marxist scum out to destroy the country, then? Fwiw the Teamsters endorsed Reagan--twice.

Moonhead -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 5:48:02 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: dcnovice quote: Does this mean that the Unions are no longer evil unAmerican Marxist scum out to destroy the country, then? Fwiw the Teamsters endorsed Reagan--twice. That they did. Doesn't stop any of the neocons in here bitching about them like they're run by Kropotkin, Lenin and Pol Pot, does it?

DomKen -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 6:24:59 PM)
The fact is that the ACA is not perfect but it would have been better if either the Dems had simply ignored the GOP and passed single payer or if the GOP had actually participated and worked to improve the law. I'm sick to death of hearing conservatives screaming for repeal and replace but no replacement bill is even written to be considered.

tazzygirl -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 6:31:10 PM)
quote: Look man, its not an opinion that this was a lie. The bill itself said that if any feature of a grandfathered insurance program changed including the price that insurance program would no longer be eligible. I havent seen that mentioned anywhere. Mind giving me a link?

Phydeaux -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 7:30:30 PM)
To maintain its grandfathered status, a plan in the individual or grouop market cannot significanly increase copayments or deductables, raise coinsurance, make annual limits more restrictive, or add new annual limits, significantly decrease the share of premiums that employer contribut for their works, or eliminate covered benefits. Here are some examples of disqualifying charges Increase o a copay more than $5. An increase in a deducatable more than the medical inflation since 2010. Any increase in co-insurance. Any decrease in annual limits. Decrease of employer contribution more than 5% Of course, since the health insurance now MUST cover young adults up to the age of 26-do you think that might change the costs to the insurer? Same question - since the insurer now cannot have lifetime coverage limits? Theres a lot more of that kind of stuff. Go google it.

cloudboy -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 7:56:56 PM)
This looks like bullshit. I am on the teamsters web site and I searched affordable care act and this letter from Hoffa is nowhere to be found. As Tazzy has said, provide the teamsters link to this letter. There's also no date of publication. In contrast read the following: TEAMSTERS APPLAUD ENACTMENT OF HEALTH CARE REFORM March 23, 2010 Hoffa Urges Senate To Pass Exemptions for Tax on Insurance Plans (WASHINGTON) – Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa today applauded President Obama and Congress for enacting historic health care reform, providing health insurance to millions of Americans who don’t have it and controlling costs for millions more who do. Hoffa urged the Senate to swiftly pass a companion bill to the House measure that includes President Obama’s proposal to exempt all Americans from an excise tax on health care plans until 2018.

tazzygirl -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 8:02:29 PM)
Grandfathered Status for Plans Sold in the Individual Market Individual market health plans that covered individuals and families on the day that the Affordable Care Act was enacted, March 23, 2010, may be considered grandfathered plans. People who are enrolled in grandfathered individual market plans can add family members to their policies without the plans’ grandfathered status changing. However, if an insurer in the individual market sells a plan to someone after March 23, 2010, the plan cannot be considered grandfathered for the new purchaser. This is the case even if the plan is considered to be a grandfathered plan for others who were enrolled in it on the day that the law was enacted. In addition, a health plan that is sold in the individual market will lose its grandfathered status for people it covered on or before March 23, 2010, if it makes significant changes to its benefits package or its costs to enrollees. These changes are described on page 3. Grandfathered Status for Job-Based (Group) Coverage Job-based health plans that covered workers and their families on March 23, 2010, may be considered grandfathered plans. If qualifying new enrollees join a plan that their employer already provided on that date, the plan can maintain its grandfathered status. Employers with grandfathered plans can add newly hired employees, existing employees who were not previously enrolled, and employees’ family members to their health plans and still maintain the plans’ grandfathered status. Under the amendment to the interim final rules for grandfathered plans that was released in November 2010, job-based health plans may also be considered grandfathered plans if they change the insurance companies they use for coverage and those changes go into effect on or after November 15, 2010.1 However, such plans must still cover the same benefits at the same costs to enrollees as they did with the previous insurers. If a job-based health plan makes significant changes to its benefits package or its costs to enrollees, whether it is providing coverage through its current insurer or starting a contract with a new health insurer, it will lose its grandfathered status. These changes are described on page 3. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Plan Element -------------------- Disqualifying Change* Copayment - ]The greater of an increase of more than $5 (adjusted for medical inflation since March 23, 2010) or an increase above medical inflation plus 15 percentage points. Deductible - An increase above medical inflation (since March 23, 2010) plus 15 percentage points Out-of-Pocket Limit - An increase above medical inflation (since March 23, 2010) plus 15 percentage points Co-Insurance - Any increase in the co-insurance rate after March 23, 2010 Annual Limit - Any decrease of an annual limit that was in place on March 23, 2010, disqualifies a plan. Adoption of a new annual limit for plans that did not have one on March 23, 2010, also disqualifies a plan. Employer Premium Contribution Rate (in group plans)- A decrease of more than 5 percentage points below the existing employer contribution rate as of March 23, 2010** Benefits Package - The elimination of all or substantially all covered benefits to diagnose or treat a particular condition after March 23, 2010 * See the interim final rule on grandfathered plans listed under “Additional Resources” for information regarding exceptions to the March 23, 2010, date. Exceptions may apply to plans that had already filed pending changes at the time that health reform was enacted. ** If a plan had a lifetime limit but no annual limit on March 23, 2010, it may replace its lifetime limit with an annual limit while maintaining its grandfathered status, as long as the annual limit has a dollar value that is equal to or greater than the previous lifetime limit. Having posted all that, you might be interested in page 4. http://www.familiesusa.org/assets/pdfs/health-reform/Grandfathered-Plans.pdf quote: Same question - since the insurer now cannot have lifetime coverage limits? That was also addressed above.

tazzygirl -> RE: Unions say Obamacare will destroy the health and wellbeing of workers (7/18/2013 8:15:38 PM)
The Wall Steet Journal posted the letter... I highly doubt its made up. http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2013/07/12/union-letter-obamacare-will-destroy-the-very-health-and-wellbeing-of-workers/

Page: [1] 2 next > >>

Collarchat.com © 2025

Terms of Service

3.027344E-02