Last week, Joseph Rago noted in the Wall Street Journal the latest union boss payoff by the Obama Administration (emphasis added):
White House payoffs to big labor are by now routine, though rarely are they this transparent: This week, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius rolled out a new program that, scrubbed down, amounts to a slush fund for union health plans.
When Democrats realized that ObamaCare's approval numbers were sagging, they loaded the bill up with "early deliverables"—programs that would go into effect immediately, rather than the five or more years of delay used to hide the bill's true costs. One of those early deliverables was $5 billion in subsidies to early retirees aged 55 to 64 who incur annual health costs over $15,000.
Ms. Sebelius did her best to dress this reinsurance program up in a public-interest blanket, but many of the 3.3 million eligible retirees are ex-union workers who extracted generous benefits from some of America's most hardpressed industries. Businesses that doled out these unaffordable promises will be delighted with the federal handout, taxpayers less so. And also eligible are retired state and local public employees, as well as certain health-care trusts like one recently set up by the United Auto Workers, which has an estimated 30 cents in cash for every dollar of expected claims.
National Right to Work president Mark Mix called ObamaCare a "a Trojan Horse for more forced unionization" in the Journal last September. Among other hidden payoffs to Big Labor, Mix noted the discretionary authority given to Sebelius and a provision to bail out insolvent union health-care plans.
This latest scheme is unsurprising. And it's just the tip of the iceberg.
Comments
Healthcare Bill Handouts
Please clarify this article for me. I am not sure of the correlation between the $5 Billion in subsidies and the unions. I read that "many of the 3.3 million eligible retirees are ex-union workers". What percentage of those eligible are ex-union members? You did not say you have to be an ex-union member to be eligible.
Are you saying that the union organizations will be the direct beneficiaries of the subsidies? Will they receive the funding to pay for the healthcare premiums their retired members have "earned"?
I retired at 62 two years ago, and have paid more than $15,000 for health insurance. I was not a union member. Might I have been eligible for a "subsidy" or a tax credit under this program?
Money
Where is all the money coming from that Obummer is constantly giving away? The taxpayers are already dried up. Doesn't he see that there is a big tax revolt coming? I guess he does, that's why one of the demons hidden in the HELLthcare act is an order for an army of 6,000 that he can use anywhere in America. I guess he plans to steal the very last cent from the American people. He wants ALL of the people's money and he wants everyone's guns. I guess the word "dictator" would describe him to a "T".
Healthcare bill handouts
Frank raises good questions. Are there no answers?
Health care hand outs to unions!
This is one more reason to vote them out in November,maybe we can get back to constitutional law and not backroom deals behind closed doors with unions!
I feel guilty. I receive a
I feel guilty. I receive a pension and insurance from the state of Florida. I used to think unions were a good thing until I realized how disproportional benefits are.