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. HoffaGeneral PresidentInternational Brotherhood of Teamsters Joseph HansenInternational PresidentUFCW D. TaylorPresidentUNITE-HERE
If you will recall, the legislation didn't have much support to begin with. Zero Republican support, little democrat support & even less popular support. The only way it was passed was bribing a few Senators by agreeing to exempt their states. The only way unions supported the measure was with the promise their membership would be exempted. As with every other aspect of Obamacare, it all turned out to be a big...except the tax increase, that is...we got that as promised.
Oh so sad! Good news for America and bad news for the Repukes again. Prez boasts that Obamacare puts cash in 8.5 million pockets Published: Thursday, 18 Jul 2013 | 6:00 AM ET By: Dan Mangan | Writer Amid a fresh assault from opponents, President Barack Obama Thursday plans to demonstrate that his landmark health-care reform law is moving from being an "abstraction" to a program that delivers benefits to "real people," officials said. Obama is set to give a White House speech in which he is expected to boast how the Affordable Care Act already is giving 8.5 million Americans an average rebate of about $100 per family this summer, just months before new insurance mandates on individuals take effect. The speech comes after House Republicans late Wednesday approved largely symbolic legislation to delay key coverage requirements. The measures were the 38th and 39th House bills to take aim at the 2010 reforms known as Obamacare, and were aimed at delaying the insurance mandates for individuals, which begin next year. The opposition was recently bolstered by the Obama administration's decision to delay the mandate for larger employers to offer health coverage. That step raised questions about whether it is possible for the individual requirements to take effect as scheduled. Obama — whose signature legislation remains a political flash point three years after becoming law — also is expected to crow at Thursday's event about how Obamacare policies also helped nearly 78 million consumers save about $3.4 billion in insurance premiums in 2012. The $500 million or so in rebates are related, Obama administration officials said, to the ACA rule that compels insurers to give customers money back if they fail to spend at least 80 percent of premium dollars on medical care and heath-care quality improvement, as opposed to administrative costs. That new rule, and other ACA provisions, also lead to the reduced premiums, according to officials, who said some rebate recipients will appear with Obama at his speech. Cheaper premiums In related news, the U.S. Health and Human Services Administration on Thursday is releasing data suggesting that some premiums of medium-priced plans that are going on sale in 11 new state insurance exchanges in October are significantly less expensive than had been estimated by the Congressional Budget Office when the law was passed in 2010. Play Video Gov. Rick Scott: Obamacare is a disaster for US Mad Money host Jim Cramer speaks with Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) about the Zimmerman trial, his state's terrific turnaround, an unemployment number below the national average, and health care. The premiums of lowest-cost plan offered in the so-called "Silver" tier level of insurance coverage in those states—including California, Colorado, New York, Ohio, Florida and Washington, D.C.—on average was 18 percent lower than the CBO's estimates, according to Obama officials. HHS also found that such premiums available to small employers on ACA marketplaces in six states where data is available are estimated to be an average of 18 percent less expensive than the average premium that small employers would be paying for a pre-ACA silver plan. The trends, if echoed nationwide, could make it less expensive for millions of people to embrace Obamacare, which requires uninsured individuals obtain health insurance next year or face a financial penalty. Open enrollment in state exchanges offering such insurance, which will range in price and benefits levels assigned to escalating bronze, silver, gold and platinum tiers, begins Oct. 1. (Read More: Obamacare's jobs diagnosis: What does the data say? ) In a background briefing to reporters, senior Obama administration officials previewed the president's speech and the HHS's survey. They also pointed to news hours before that New York's health insurance exchange's premiums will be on average at least 50 percent lower than individual rates currently available in that state, even without federal subsidies eligible to many of the expected enrollees. 'Real, tangible benefits' "We're going to have affordable options and coverage," said one official on that conference call. Officials noted that in early 2013, only about 14 percent of health insurers have proposed double-digit rate increases, compared to 75 percent in 2010, a dramatic drop they ascribed to transparency requirements mandated by the ACA. "Millions of Americans, after years of political debate, are going to see real, tangible benefits," an official said. That official said that for years now, the law "has been this abstraction" and seen by many as just "a political football between Democrats and Republicans." "We're going to step away from the abstraction, which is the Washington noise," the official said. "As we get closer to the open enrollment period . . . the abstraction is evaporating, is going away, because the effects are going to be translated into benefits for real people." The official took a shot at Republicans who have repeatedly staged anti-Obamacare votes that have no chances of success of being enacted into law because of Democratic Senate control and Obama's veto power. "It's ironic that once again, either for the 38th, or 39th, or 40th time, in the wake of this good news out of New York that is going to benefit people, the House of Representatives, yet again, voted to essentially gut the ACA." The votes Wednesday stopped short of prior attempts by Republicans to fully repeal the legislation. Instead, the House voted 264-161 to delay its individual requirements, and 251-174 in favor of the employer delay, with some Democrats joining the Republican effort. Although the Obama Administration granted businesses with more than 50 full-time employees a one-year delay in the mandate to provide affordable health insurance plans to their workers or face a $2,000 per worker fine, the administration has said that the individual mandate—and the federal- and state-run insurance exchanges that will help people comply with that mandate—are on course to go into effect Oct. 1 with open enrollment.
I'm sure BO will be pleased to read that there are still some idiots out there who will believe the lies rather than look at the facts.
Really, feel free to point out the lies if you can. Of course, you can't but don't let that stop you from saying it anyway.
It sounds like someone got their little pink panties in a bunch. I'll continue to ask you questions but, as usual, you'll probably continue to refuse to answer. I'll ask again: Why don't you address the issue that the union leaders pointed out, Little Joe?
Well, let's see... Despite BO's lies, premiums have increased...hours are being cut...jobs are being eliminated. Think about some of the early promises: you can keep your current insurance, you can keep your current doctor, pre-existing conditions are covered & premiums will be lower....ALL LIES!! Think back to how the bill was passed: exemption from the bill was granted in return for votes and union support was gained by granting exemption to it's membership. When pressed for details, the bills leading advocate, Nancy Pelosi, could only tell us "we'll have to pass the bill to see what's in it"...subsequently, more exemptions were granted to her constituents than to any other constituency in the nation. If that's not enough, her 2nd in-command, foggy's favorite Weiner, called for his ENTIRE district to be exempted because of those people's "unique ability" to make their own healthcare decisions. And all of this is supposed to go away simply because BO says the legislation is working? What's his proof, a $100 bribe to some families? Just a little tip here, just because BO says something doesn't necessarily make it true.
