AFL-CIO resolution criticizes President Obama's health-care law

[OhioChick]

Source: AP

September 11, 2013 at 9:38 PM

WASHINGTON -- The AFL-CIO on Wednesday approved a resolution critical of parts of President Barack Obama's health-care law in spite of efforts by White House officials to discourage the labor federation from making its concerns so prominent.

The strongly worded resolution says the Affordable Care Act will drive up the costs of union-sponsored health plans to the point that workers and employers are forced to abandon them. Labor unions still support the law's overall goals of reducing health costs and bringing coverage to all Americans, the resolution says, but adds that the law is being implemented in a way that is "highly disruptive" to union health-care plans.

Some individual unions have complained about the law's impact for months. The resolution marks the first time the nation's largest labor federation has gone on record embracing that view. Unions were among the most enthusiastic backers of the law when it passed in 2010.

A labor official told the Associated Press that White House officials had been calling labor leaders for days to urge them not to voice their concerns in the form of a resolution. The official, who wasn't authorized to discuss the conversations publicly and requested anonymity, said many union leaders insisted that they wanted to highlight their concerns.

Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2013/09/afl-cio_resolution_criticizes.html#incart_river_default

[ForgoTheConsequence]

1. Is there a bus big enough for all of the AFL-CIO?

Between this and TPP Obama is really going all out to alienate labor.

[SunSeeker]

2. What sucks is that simple tweaks to the ACA could fix this problem, but the GOP won't do it.

The GOP wants to defund or repeal the ACA, not fix it. It is a major piece of legislation, and like all complex laws, will require tweaking as the years pass. But as long as we have an obstructionist GOP voting block in Congress, it ain't gonna happen.

If this fix was put up for the vote, the GOP would swamp the bill with poison pill amendments to cripple the ACA, forcing the President to veto the bill.

[YOHABLO]

3. Perhaps if Obama would have fought for a single-payer plan everyone would be happy.

[dotymed]

4. That was supposed to be the plan.

Then we find out that the ACA was a health insurance payday instead of the MUCH NEEDED health care for all.

It may be better than nothing and I hope that millions of Americans can finally get what is a human right in most countries.

For profit health care should be illegal, if the people had their way, it would be. I am an FDR Democrat who is still amazed that President Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize....that took some Oscar winning acting. I worked my ass off for him and then thought, "there is no fool like an old fool....

[cstanleytech]

5. If he had then nothing would have been on the books because

there was no way in hell it would have passed so he took what he could get.
Hopefully though the republicans will lose the majority in congress and wont regain it for atleast 20 years and if they do and the dems can retake more of the senate the law can be improved to become a single payer plan.

[bread_and_roses]

16. Oh baloney

You don't sit down to the bargaining table with your lowest offer. He never even tried. Had we started with a demand for Single Payer MAYBE we would have ended up with Public Option. Or maybe it would have failed altogether THAT year - and we could have come back to it by now. But he wanted his big, signature Bill - his Legacy Bill -

But he never even tried for Public Option - and we ended up with this Rube Goldberg of a mess that benefits big insurance.

I'm incoherent - this still - after all this time - makes me so angry.

And that Obama would ask any favors of the AFL-CIO while he's pushing TPP is unbelievable (though actually not - we've been good little puppies for the most part).

[cstanleytech]

22. Sorry but I believe you are mistaken as the way the winds were blowing at the time were not

ones that favored a public option and the President realized that himself so he choose to try this law as once its on the books a law is extremely difficult to get rid of as the republicans have seen with their failure at trying to repeal it 30+ times.

[babylonsister]

6. Baloney. View the healthcare fight. We are lucky with what

we got; and it could change, that change/tweak was a given.

Explicitly, no one was on board for single payer that could be talked into it.

[IronLionZion]

21. Perhaps if we get people covered first, then forward towards single payer

starting at the state level like in Canada. One step at a time. With big national reforms, too much too quickly is confusing and difficult and unpopular.

[lonestarnot]

7. Well this sucks all the way around it.

[Generic Other]

8. So my union joins me under the bus

a union made bus on union made roads.

[quadrature]

9. how have you been wronged?

unionists get the same deal as everyone else,

please be as specific as you can be.

[Generic Other]

11. My deductibles are up my benefits more costly

I am losing money under the new system. We union members and our "Cadillac" plans are getting slashed. I am not the only person finding my insurance is suddenly more expensive. As it is I rarely ever go over my deductible, so twenty years of insurance really never paid for anything (which I will not complain about).

Of course, I could quit my job and be eligible for subsidized Obamacare. I did not have that option before. Or coverage for pre-existing.

There are people benefiting under the new system. And others are covered by companies who intend to squeeze them worse than before. That's because we don't have single payer.

[quadrature]

12. 90% of everybody gets screwed with ACA

you are describing the
typical ill affects of joining
the other victims of ACA.

but to me, it seems like you want to cash-in
without bending over.

[Generic Other]

13. 90% is bad

People are going to be mad if this is the case.

[Starry Messenger]

10. Well all the ACA boosters here said we'd be "fixing it later", quite smugly.

It's later and it needs a lot of fixing.

[Amimnoch]

14. 2009-2010 I wrote everyone I could think of to suggest an alternative plan.

From the moment in 2009 when it became very apparent that the ACA was not going to end up single payer, and only be real benefit to insurance corporations, I'd starting writing letters to my Senators, other key Senators, the President, the office of the VP, Nancy Pelosi, my representatives, and key representatives, along with the DNC with, what I considered a much better plan... I got a couple of insightful letters back, but the vast majority just sent blanket form letters back with no real response, and many didn't even cover what I'd discussed at all (indicating that they were never really even read).

The key problem, from my perspective, with the ACA was that is was never really a health care bill, but just a health insurance bill. It didn't really do anything to address nursing, PA, or Dr. shortages (especially specialists), that would provide the service to begin with.

Right now, just about every town that has a population of greater than 250,000 persons in the US has a free, or scalable income clinic, university hospital, or charity hospital (most are highly over crowded, and provide questionable service at best). My proposed plan:

Funding: Not even counting what is in the US, the US currently has more than 1,000 Military bases/installations worldwide, 851,441 different buildings and equipment, and 325,000 military persons. Many of which are in areas that have long outlived their strategic usefulness. If we just closed the big bases in 3 of these these areas (I proposed Germany, Japan/Okinawa, and Diego Garcia) the cost savings would be well in the billions. Earmark these savings for a revamped health-care system.

The system: The military and Veterans hospital Admin currently get their technician, nursing, PA, and Doctor pools from existing Universities. They pay for the education, and then elicit mandatory service for so many years depending on the program. Why not apply this to public health care?

At existing universities, create programs where bright inner city/under privileged children can have a path to a great career in the medical profession using the same model that the military uses to get their medical staff? Instead of ROTC, it could be something like "MPTC" (medical practitioners Training Centers). In the 3x largest cities, take some of that useless "defense" money that we get back, and open 3 large medical training facilities to produce large numbers of PA's, medical Techs, Nurses, and Doctors. Give the children of the impoverished areas of these cities a path to a real future to these facilities! Condition being that upon graduation technicians must dedicate 6 years in a moderate paying government Free clinic or free hospital, Nurses must do the same for 8 years, and Doctors must do the same for 10 or 12 years. Their final degree is dependent on successfully completing this term.

Around the county, use the remaining funds to open free clinics focusing on quality preventative health care, and hospitals/surgical/and specialist centers and equip them for free, or cost proportional (based on patient income/health plan) services.

Anyway, that was my basic plan that I recommended... To have real affordable health care, you first have to have the places, and staff that can provide it on the wide scale needed for our population of 313 Million people. A new insurance mandate, and insurance tax isn't going to achieve that on its own.

[durablend]

15. It's obvious they never loved him

[Scuba]

17. Medicare for All, including dental, optical and hearing aids. Everything else is window dressing.

[beerandjesus]

18. Let's see if the pro-war crowd shows up here to say the AFL-CIO is a bunch of Obama-hating freepers!

I'm *KIDDING*

[hughee99]

19. Didn't the AFL-CIO have this discussion in 2010 with the President

and got a waiver for organizations that collectively bargain until 2018?

[JohninPA]

20. I was called a Republican

I was called a Repug because I work in employee benefits and had the audacity to say that most of my clients are paying much more because of the ACA.