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Union Leaders’ Epiphany Leaves Them Scrambling: Wait, Obamacare Is Going to Drive up Our Costs?

Jan. 31, 2013 10:18am Becket Adams

The WSJ Reports That Union Leaders Are Souring on Obamacare

Members of trade unions join Occupy Wall Street protesters as they rally in Foley Square, New York, Oct. 5, 2011. (Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images)

Imagine the following scene:

A handful of union bosses crowd around an old card table, punching numbers into their calculators. They’ve been up all night. Someone puts on another pot of coffee and a few of the older bosses are starting to fall asleep. Those who are still alert and active scratch their heads and re-enter their calculations.

“Oh, my gosh!” one of them shouts, concluding the all-night exercise. “‘Obamacare’ is going to cost us!”

Yes, according to a recent report from the Wall Street Journal, union leaders (i.e. the same people who campaigned tirelessly in favor of universal healthcare) are trying to figure out a way to avoid paying for the costs associated with “Obamacare.”

From the WSJ:

Labor unions enthusiastically backed the Obama administration’s health-care overhaul when it was up for debate. Now that the law is rolling out, some are turning sour.

Union leaders say many of the law’s requirements will drive up the costs for their health-care plans and make unionized workers less competitive. Among other things, the law eliminates the caps on medical benefits and prescription drugs used as cost-containment measures in many health-care plans. It also allows children to stay on their parents’ plans until they turn 26.

To offset that, the nation’s largest labor groups want their lower-paid members to be able to get federal insurance subsidies while remaining on their plans. In the law, these subsidies were designed only for low-income workers without employer coverage as a way to help them buy private insurance.

In early talks, the Obama administration dismissed the idea of applying the subsidies to people in union-sponsored plans, according to officials from the trade group, the National Coordinating Committee for Multiemployer Plans, that represents these insurance plans.

As financial reality sets in, and rather than figure out a way to pay for the bill they helped pass, unions are trying to see if Washington will bail them out.

“Top officers at the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the AFL-CIO and other large labor groups plan to keep pressing the Obama administration to expand the federal subsidies,” the WSJ notes, “warning that unionized employers may otherwise drop coverage.”

“A handful of unions say they already have examined whether it makes sense to shift workers off their current plans and onto private coverage subsidized by the government. But dropping insurance altogether would undermine a central point of joining a union, labor leaders say,” the report adds.

No, really, union heads are acting like no one warned them that costs would go up.

“We are going back to the administration to say that this is not acceptable,” said Ken Hall, general secretary-treasurer for the Teamsters.

“I heard him say, ‘If you like your health plan, you can keep it,’” said John Wilhelm, chairman of Unite Here Health, the insurance plan for 260,000 union workers. “If I’m wrong, and the president does not intend to keep his word, I would have severe second thoughts about the law.”

Why? Why? Why didn’t anyone tell these leaders about the costs associated with “Obamacare”?

“It seems someone finally noticed that mandating benefits and imposing regulations has a tendency to … increase costs,” Doug Bandow writes for the American Spectator. “Increases which workers are stuck paying. Who would have imagined such a result? It’s not like anyone warned them, right?”

Click here to read the WSJ’s full report.

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Front page photo courtesy Getty Images. Carousel image courtesy of Shutterstock.com

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Comments (406)

barber2
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 12:06pm
Yes. They are the “99%” alright. That refers to the percentage of naive idiots who voted for these Chicago radicals / aka the Obama Administration. A second time !? Unbelievable…

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lefty5005
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 12:06pm
I am white, over 50, heterosexual, Christian and have a non-union job. I will be stuck with paying for the union’s healthcare along with the 47% or parasites in the country who live off the government. I am seriously thinking of taking my retirement money now, move in with my mother and say screw the govt, IRS and anyone else except my immediate family. I’ve had enough of this hope and change. The only way out of this mess will be a civil war or someone usurps the Executive branch and nullifies everything that has happened for the past 4 years, including the two Marxist Supreme Court nominees. I have lost all faith in the Federal govt to manage anything and both parties are to blame for this abortion.

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- nomemymine
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 5:05am
  I hear ya. Retirement is wonderful. It is like living a new life. If you can afford it, do it. It makes my life totally worth living now.
  
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- FunFunFun
  Posted on February 1, 2013 at 7:26am
  Although, you might need to consider the inflation rate. If you retire now, what happens when super inflation hits? I remember during Carter time, our raises at work were 25%, just to keep up with the inflation. Sorry, not much help here.
  
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iamnotu
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 12:06pm
Here is your basic lie number one of the unions “make unionized workers less competitive.” I’d like to know when any union made worker more competative? What a laugh!
You union fools gave the SCROTUS exactly what he wanted but do you think he is going to give you a pass? You are all acting like stupid imbiciles, oh wait you are. Like you didn’t know anything. Hey, bend over and take it up the azz like the rest of us 50% workers. Poor little union trolls might actually have to pay like the rest of the people who really work for a living.

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Jack76
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 12:05pm
“Everything Obama touches turns to crap”
Mark Levin

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jeffile
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 12:05pm
Fifty years and now it’s: Ask not what you can do for your country but what can your country do for you.

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jbast01
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 12:02pm
Just pass it and then let’s figure out what’s in it. What a bunch of idiots!

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hauschild
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 12:00pm
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter, as government sector or private sector unions will force the taxpayer to shoulder the responsibility – ultimately.

The most interesting thing to me about leftists is that they firmly believe they can “tinker” and all that tinkering will only lead to good outcomes. They have no genetic trait that allows them to think long-term and to fully analyze a given situation. Whether it’s free health care, lavish pensions or women in combat; they simply do not have the skill set of intelligence. Book smart or educated? Absolutely. Intelligent? Absolutely not.

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Slipstick
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 12:00pm
Obamacare is an equal opportunity program — EVERYBODY gets screwed.

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redonred
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:56am
Ussa gota go.

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NDPINDNT
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:54am
Fools! They were warned when this was being proposed.

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perry1980
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:52am
When will you Union Pawns wake up and realize that you are simply being used for your Union Dues
to promote and support the Liberal Progressive Agenda and not you.

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just_around
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:52am
That’s not an “epiphany” that’s called getting your head out of your ass

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JLindsay
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:51am
They want Obama to “keep his word” on being able to keep their old plan? LOL. The bill has done been passed boys. It’s law. Get used to it. You asked for it. You got it. Obama.

The whole point of this Marxist exercise was to destroy all the private plans and their insurance companies to pave the way for government takeover. You tools did not know that?.

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Chuck7884
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:48am
OOPS! Nothing in life is truly free. one way or another we have to pay!.

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sbenard
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:48am
You mean the Deceiver in Chief didn’t give them all exemptions?

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Blazen420
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:47am
It’s all a scam! Americans don’t want to believe that their government would con them, but it is all in plain view, folks. And don’t think it is just the Dems that are gullible and stupid. There seems to be alot of Repubs that are brainwashed as well. People need to start thinking of Democrats and Republicans as the one party government that they are. But people won’t. They’re to busy calculating NFL stats or watching Real Houswives of Orange County.

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JLindsay
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:46am
This is like watching a dinosaur caught in the tar pit.

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redacted
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:45am
Ha! Beck mentioned as a courtesy, NOT a paid advertisement, that folks should go sign up at blocktheexchange.com to fight Obamacare.

One problem though….blocktheexchange.com was not even registered. I would have taken the domain, but I didn’t see a way to profit from it. Ya, I’m evil that way.

It’s now registered of course, minutes later lol.

BTW, I’m in Florida, and Gov Scott, who knows a bit about running hospitals, has said Florida will NOT set up an exchange. He will likely be challenged in 2014 by the (now a Demonrat) Charlie Crist. God forbid that snake gets back into office.

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barber2
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:44am
Obama’s War on American capitalism continues…

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SycamoreFan
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:43am
Here’s a plan. Why don’t you union goons and thugs get a bunch of pots and pans and go to the Capital and beat on them pans and scream and holler till you are blue in the face. The Obama-don’t-care plan is the LAW and Obama don’t care if you like it or not! He got your donations and don’t need no more, the next election he will just declare himself president by decree.

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barber2
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:43am
Remember the ” Affordable Housing Act ,” union dummies ? Guess some people never learn which is why they continue to vote for Democrats.

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- carhouse
  Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:51am
  useful idiot is now defined as Union members for obozocare
  
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ExtremeLeft
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:42am
Comrades,

We must provide for everyone. Surely your children can do without an extra pair of shoes or an extra toy so that we can give medical care for everyone. Surely you can sacrifice a little more. Work a little harder. Deprive yourself of luxuries. Please don’t fail to see the wisdom of socialism and of our great King.

“Formerly known as EXTREMERIGHT.. I have seen the light”

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- ExtremeLeft
  Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:50am
  I had to reassure my wife that it is ok to pay an extra 25% for our medical insurance. We all have to sacrifice for the greater good of socialism and the nation. As a little boy growing up in Cuba I did not understand the wisdom of Castro. Now look all Cubans have free medical care.. I do not understand when my mothers family claims that ” Of course it’s free there isn’t any” down right Imperialist lies.
  
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Outlaw_Josey_Wales
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:34am
Forrest Gump on Obamacare
Obamacare is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’ re going to get.

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FaithfulFriend
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:34am
How Long Exactly Will It Take For Obamacare to Bankrupt The Unions?

I would like to go ahead and mark my calendar.

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slr4528
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 11:32am
If the unions get a waiver then there should be a mass protest of business leaders and nonunion workers all across the country!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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