It's been reported for months that labor unions, whose leaders heavily campaigned for Obamacare and President Obama's reelection, are extremely unhappy with the details of the Affordable Care act. In July, Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa, UFCW President Joseph Hansen and UNITE-HERE President D. Taylor sent a letter to Democratic leaders in Congress demanding the law be fixed, warning the legislation would kill the 40 hour work week and strip union workers of hard earned healthcare benefits. In September, union leaders met at the White House to further express their concerns and to hash out a sweetheart deal. That deal, is now here:
The Obama administration has found a way to give unions relief from an Obamacare tax nearly three weeks after Republicans rejected a Democratic push to include the labor carve-out in the latest budget deal.
The Department of Health and Human Services quietly released a final rule last week that includes an intention to exempt some union insurance plans from a substantial new tax known as the reinsurance fee.
As part of Obamacare, the tax was supposed to be levied against all insurance plans to share the risk for insurers taking on the sickest patients next year.
To put it simply, labor unions just got an Obamacare waiver. At this point, Congress has granted themselves an Obamacare waiver. The Obama administration has granted corporations and businesses an Obamacare waiver until 2015 by delaying the employer mandate. The average American citizen however, of whom millions are losing health insurance plans President Obama promised they could keep, is still required to comply with all aspects of the law and the individual mandate. And yes, this is still a requirement for individuals even with a broken and nonworking Obamacare website.
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