Obamacare Train Wreck Continues: Labor Union Frustration Boils Over | Health Law Prompts Confusion In Rural Counties | What Will Obamacare Cost In Illinois

The Train Wreck Continues

Not even a holiday weekend can slow the torrent of stories chronicling the problems of Obamacare.

According to The Hill, “Unions are frustrated the Obama administration hasn’t responded to their calls for changes to ObamaCare . . . . They say they don’t understand why their concerns so far have fallen on deaf ears. . . . It's an issue that Obama may have to face when he speaks to the AFL-CIO convention a week after Labor Day. Most unions backed ObamaCare’s passage, but labor argues provisions in the law could cut employee hours, unfairly tax their plans and force workers off their union health plans into the law’s potentially more costly insurance exchanges. The key issue are union members who are among the roughly 20 million people who use non-profit multi-employer ‘Taft-Hartley’ health plans. Unions want the administration to change ObamaCare so that those plans are treated as qualified health plans that can earn tax subsidies. Under the administration's interpretation of the law, the multi-employer plans are not eligible for the subsidies. Without those subsidies, employers may have the incentive to drop the plans and force workers onto the insurance exchanges. . . . Unions also argue that the law creates an incentive for employers to cut back on work hours for employees. Under ObamaCare, companies have to provide healthcare coverage to workers who work 30 hours or more a week — which could lead some employers to cut back on employee hours to avoid the requirement.”

In Pennsylvania, The Morning Call reports, “Fearing Obamacare will drastically increase the cost of health insurance policies next year, some employers are turning to new strategies to blunt or at least delay the ‘rate shock.’ . . . But efforts to save money now may backfire on when businesses look at coverage for the following year. If the Obamacare marketplaces are covering more older, sicker groups than expected, ‘insurers may need to increase their rates to catch up on any losses that they had in 2014,’ said Christine Monahan, a senior health policy analyst at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University. ‘It is young, healthy people that the new marketplace needs in 2014 to keep premiums affordable,’ she wrote in a recent blog post. Without them, she said, ‘that means higher premiums for everyone in 2015.’ In addition, some insurers are requiring decisions on early renewals before the complete set of rates in the marketplace insurance products are known, she noted. That leaves companies making ‘a blind decision,’ Monahan said.”

As in the Keystone State, confusion reigns everywhere when it comes to the president’s unpopular health care law. In an article headlined, “Health Laws Prompts Confusion in Rural Counties,” the AP writes about the impact of Obamacare on rural Allamakee County, Iowa, where “there is both confusion and skepticism about the program in this area.” The story profiles “Candy Seibert, a self-employed property manager from northeast Iowa . . . who has never had health insurance as an adult, said she didn't know much about the new law and wasn't sure if it would have an impact on her life. ‘I feel a little strange that this is the first time we're forced to do something by our government,’ said Seibert, who said she'd be taking a wait and see approach.” The AP points out, “So far, there has been little information released about the new law in Iowa. . . . Iowa Insurance Commissioner Nick Gerhart said he expected a marketing effort from the federal authorities . . . ‘It's a heavy lift and a big job,’ Gerhart said of the education effort. ‘There is a lot of trepidation in the minds of consumers.’ Rochelle Becker is one of those consumers. ‘I'm afraid it's going to jack up everybody's prices,’ said Becker, 55, a divorced mom who has insurance but finds the $400 monthly cost so expensive that she avoids the doctor for fear of additional bills.”

And in an editorial on the situation in Illinois, The Chicago Tribune grumbles, “As of Sunday, there's one month to go before the grand opening of the Obamacare online health insurance exchanges. Americans will be required to buy insurance or pay a penalty as of Jan. 1. What will insurance cost in Illinois? What companies will offer coverage? With what benefits? That's part of the Obamacare guessing game here. . . . State officials still haven't released proposed rates. . . . Illinois officials have submitted proposed insurance plans and rates to the federal government but won't tell the public what they are. Illinois folks say they are waiting on federal officials for final approval, but the feds keep pushing back the deadlines. . . . Oh, and by the way, federal officials dumped another 300 pages of Obamacare rules on states and insurers just last week. ‘How the heck can anyone (individuals, carriers, businesses) make any plans and stay compliant if they issue a rule just one month before it takes effect?’ independent insurance agent Robert Slayton in Naperville said to us. Good question.”

ICYMI The Hill reported last week that "UPS cuts healthcare benefits for spouses, blames ObamaCare. . . . UPS will no longer offer healthcare coverage to employees' spouses who could obtain insurance through their own jobs, according to a notice first reported by Kaiser Health News. Since the Affordable Care Act requires employers to provide affordable coverage, we believe your spouse should be covered by their own employer — just as UPS has a responsibility to cover you, our employee," UPS said in a memo to employees. The move could affect as many as 15,000 employees, UPS said. Spouses of UPS employees who do not work or are not offered healthcare at their jobs could remain on the UPS healthcare plan. So can children and stepchildren."

As Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said recently, “Last month, the Administration announced it would delay Obamacare’s employer mandate on businesses. It’s not hard to see why. We keep reading about how businesses large and small will have little option but to cut employee hours and paychecks as Obamacare comes online. About how restaurants like White Castle are considering hiring only part-time workers moving forward. About how small businesses are citing Obamacare as a top worry. . . .[T]he sooner we act to fully repeal this law, the more needless pain can be avoided for our country – and the sooner we can start working on the kind of common-sense, step-by-step, cost-lowering reforms that Americans can support.”

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