When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Obamacare Thursday, unions praised the decision, but it wasn’t always that way. The biggest, most powerful unions in the U.S. opposed the law until they were granted special exemptions.
“The decision is a victory for the millions of Americans who need financial assistance to purchase health insurance, and means that tax credits for middle class and low-income Americans will be available in all 50 states,” United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) said in a statement.
The UFCW, AFSCME, the AFL-CIO, the United Steelworkers and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) among others all released statements showing their support for the law and the highest court’s decision to uphold it. Not long ago, however, unions were adamantly opposed to President Barack Obama’s massive healthcare overhaul.
“On behalf of the millions of working men and women we represent and the families they support, we can no longer stand silent in the face of elements of the Affordable Care Act that will destroy the very health and wellbeing of our members along with millions of other hardworking Americans,” a union letter from 2013, which was obtained by The Wall Street Journal, detailed.
The letter held signatures from leadership in the Teamsters, UNITE-HERE and the UFCW. But since that time, unions have come to support the law, while the Obama administration has continued to grant them special privileges.
“We write to express deep disappointment that your agency has approved a final rule creating an unwarranted special carveout benefitting certain unions over other Americans,” a 2014 letter to the Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Burwell from Senate Republicans declared. “We demand that the rule be immediately rescinded.”
The letter, signed by 25 Republicans, followed a decision by the Obama administration to release a rule exempting some self-insured health plans, such as those commonly run by unions, from a reinsurance fee written into the law. The fee is designed to stabilize the individual market if too many sick customers sign up for insurance between 2014 and 2016.
“The American people deserve answers when their own government proposes to undermine their right to equal treatment under law,” the letter continued. “Carving out some unions from a multi-billion dollar reinsurance fee, the cost of which will ultimately be borne by every other American with private health insurance, is unacceptable.”
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