TCU joined with other Unions and Business in support of a bill introduced by Reps. Pat Tiberi (R-Ohio) and Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) that would end the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) reinsurance fee beginning in 2014. TCU has repeatedly worked to end the reinsurance tax that the ACA has placed on all health care plans. This tax will have a devastating effect on employees, as the companies will pass it on to them.
TCU President Bob Scardelletti said, “IAM President Buffenbarger and I were the first and only labor leaders in the AFL-CIO to sound the alarm on how the Affordable Care Act would hurt union negotiated health benefits…neither of us will ever let a political endorsement get in the way of fighting for the interests of our members.”?
In a recent e-mail President Scardelletti called for the AFL-CIO to get off the sidelines and take a stand in this fight. “Next year just one of the industries where we negotiate will have to pay $27 Million in new fees on our existing health plan. They have already told me they intend that money to come out of our members wages in the next round of bargaining…This must stop or every negotiated health care plan in the country will end”
At the recent AFL-CIO Convention the delegates passed Resolution 54, calling for the ACA to be administered in a manner that preserves the high-quality health coverage that multi-employer plans have provided to union families for decades. If that is not possible, delegates demanded that Congress amend the health care law.
Click here to read a related article from The Hill. ?
Click here to read President Scardelletti’s email to AFL CIO President Trumka. ?
Click here to read the prior TCU AFL-CIO Convention article on labor’s opposition to these taxes on our health care plans.