Texas Lawsuit Alleges Obamacare Money Was Used to Boost Union

Two Texas organizations with ties to the now-defunct ACORN are being accused in a federal lawsuit of using Obamacare navigators to recruit union members, according to Watchdog.org.

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The lawsuit has prompted a call for a federal probe into the matter.

Cedric Anthony’s civil complaint says he was hired by Southern United Neighborhoods, which holds the Obamacare navigator contract, and was then told to enroll members in Local 100 United Labor Unions.

Anthony — a former Texas Democratic Party employee — filed the wage-and-hour lawsuit in June against the two organizations, both run by former officials of the liberal Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, or ACORN, which collapsed under a scandal in 2010. The complaint says Anthony was jointly employed as a “federal navigator assisting people with the Affordable Care Act.”

Local 100 United Labor Unions was founded by ACORN founder Wade Rathke.

Southern United Neighborhoods received $1.4 million from the Department of Health and Human Services to help sign people up for Obamacare, while Local 100 United Labor Unions got $189,000 in 2013, according to the government watchdog group Cause of Action.

Daniel Epstein, executive director of Cause of Action, sent a letter to HHS Inspector General Daniel Levinson requesting an investigation into how these organizations might have misused money. Epstein cited the Anthony lawsuit.