Jason Millman: ObamaCare’s Latest Delay a Loss For Unions

The just announced two-year delay of ObamaCare provisions preventing people from buying policies that do not comply with ObamaCare mandates has winners. But the rule also deals another loss to unions, according to Jason Millman (in his first article for the Washington Post’s WonkBlog, since leaving Politico):

The extension of non-compliant plans grabbed all the headlines on Wednesday. Tucked in a 335-page rule, though, was the administration’s decision not broaden a proposed exemption on ObamaCare’s transitional reinsurance program.

It marks the second recent ObamaCare defeat for unions. Over the summer, the administration rejected unions’ pleas to allow their health plans to access federal subsidies.

The three-year, $25 billion reinsurance program meant to stabilize the individual market if there’s an early rush of sick insurance customers between 2014 and 2016. It’s funded by fees charged to the health plans themselves.

The unions say they’re being unfairly forced to pay into a program that their members will never benefit from.

Although the Administration had previously reacted with a proposal to exempt those union plans, Millman reports a number of sources who confirmed the exemption was so narrowly defined that just a very small sliver of their plans would meet the definition.

Unions’ frustration with ObamaCare is surely a benefit to those who seek to replace it with superior, consumer-driven, health reform.

Comments (18)

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  1. Perry says:

    We can only hope that enough people are going to get tired and frustrated with all these squirrely changes and tweaks that Obamacare will hit the highway.

  2. Ben says:

    It is just another negative example of ACA..

  3. Connor says:

    Thank God. The Unions lost their usefulness when Globalization began