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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.

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

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

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Comments (406)

evilhatemonger
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:46pm
I hope the Unions aren’t holding their breath for BHO to help them. They helped him get reelected, cool.
It’s time for them to realize, he doesn’t need them any more.
Time to join everyone else under the bus who is of no further use to him.

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bschoen2008
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:40pm
OH you poor people you woke up – Thanks for the laugh – remember Fair Share oh wait Obama will change the law for you , he is good at that.

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denkat56
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:39pm
What the unions are special, they see their unions fees not able to take care the union worker without some extra monies kicked in by the union. Less money , less profits, less coverage, I guess the union could go on strike. Or maybe actually use the monies for the union members, not the management to choose election winners or backing union thugs, or political bull sh##.

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VetMike
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:39pm
I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my face. Just how stupid could they be? The should have crunched the numbers before the elction. But, they will be given an exemption just like every other group that supported Obama. One step closer to the abyss.

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sinner-saint
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:36pm
Stupid useful idiot suckers. Screw all of them. Let em suffer and sleep in the bed they made for themselves. they want taxpayer help? The only help I’m willing give to them is a cyanide pill to swallow. I could care less about any of them.

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christos
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:36pm
They knew this already,trying to pass off the lie as unknowing,sure,no one is this dumb to believe them,they need to brush up on History they are being used as “Useful Idiots”,,,”Put no idol/union before +JESUS+GOD+” translation put no one & nothing/object first–put +JESUS+GOD+ First not $$$.

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patriot4evah
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:35pm
Well, we tried to tell them. Wait until local school boards figure out the cost effectiveness of dropping the Cadillac plans, in regard to their city taxes and revenue, in which they hold the purse strings.

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blackfeather
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:35pm
har har har…you will get exactly what you voted for…

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TrueColours
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:34pm
The useful idiots aren’t so useful any more. . .”a sucker born every minute”! You were warned suckers.

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calebjim
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:33pm
The union has little room to complain. After all the money they gave him and the dirty work behind the election, they now find themselves screwed along with the rest of the country. They elected him, now let them live with this man for the next four years.

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woodyee
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:32pm
ATTN – UNIONS

Your healthcare costs will NOT be going up. Why not? Because Obammy said so.

THAT is why you voted for him, isn’t it?

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Michelle44
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:31pm
This is so damn funny I can explode!! These STUPID people voted for this MORON, not knowing what he and his policies were all about,, NOW we all suffer,, Go cry me a river somewhere else U DUMB ASSES!!

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no1hd
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:31pm
Come on boys, you ask for it and now you are saying you’re not man enough for a lil romance.

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sallyredneck
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:27pm
To bad the leaders don’t listen to the conservative talk shows, instead more concerned with the ball scores.

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Truthmonster
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:26pm
Ha Ha Ha I laugh at the morons union thugs. Pbama olayed you like an etchesketch Ha Ha. Hook Lin and Sinkewr Ha Ha LOL. The most amusing thing about Americas’s biggest mistake is watching him stick it to the flock of kool-air drinkers. Right in the back1 Ha Ha

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ICSPADES
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:26pm
I hope all these people turn on him and his staff like rabid pit bulls only leaving remains for the rats to chew on.

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drstonesr1
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:25pm
I have just one comment and is just 6 words. BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR.

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voter_imposed_term_limits
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:21pm
Did someone just serve “koolaide”?

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BruceB
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:19pm
If you try to change union leadership u end up like Jimmy Hoffa

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Really2012
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:15pm
DUH !!!!! It is comforting to know how smart the union leaders are…..!!

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Sirk1776
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:15pm
LOL….Obama isn’t going to repeal or make the exception! He has nothing to lose anymore! A classic example of you reap what you sow!

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thegodfather
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:14pm
Ignorant union thugs..believed Dear Leader’s lies. Can you spell CHUMP? morons. Hahahaha.

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jfriedri
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:11pm
They KNEW this was going to happen. They WANTED this to happen.
The UNIONS cannot afford to keep giving their members more and more expensive benefits
ANSWER: ObamaCare

The UNIONS will just tell their members. “There is nothing we can do. We have to do this”

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wildwop
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:09pm
I thought they were all getting vouchers?

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123abc
Posted on January 31, 2013 at 2:08pm
This would be really funny if it wasn’t so sad. Sad because obama will surely bail them out or exempt them somehow.

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