LABOR ‘CARES’
Health repeal ‘reckless,’ shafts workers
AFL-CIO boss: Save Prez’s law
THE AFL-CIO, a union that has had its share of issues with elements of the Affordable Care Act, is now poised to become one of its biggest defenders on Capitol Hill.
In a letter to be sent Monday to House and Senate lawmakers, labor leader Richard Trumka blasted the “reckless” Republican-led effort to repeal Obamacare “with breathtaking speed” — and without providing a replacement program.
Some 30 million Americans will be left uninsured if the GOP succeeds in killing the act. The universal health insurance program, which mandated insurers cover even those with preexisting conditions, was a signature achievement of Obama’s presidency.
“It is reckless . . . This approach will cause the individual insurance market to collapse, destroying coverage for millions of Americans,” Trumka said in the letter obtained by the Daily News.
The Republican replacement plans that have been floated to date “cap coverage in a way that puts the burden of excessive medical price increases directly on working people,” Trumka wrote in a six-point memo attacking Republican arguments for the repeal.
The letter was addressed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). It took the GOP leaders to task for their “cut-and-run approach” and failure to consider how repeal would hurt the Medicaid and Medicare programs. Copies were also sent to all congressional lawmakers.
“This action appears to mark just the first stage of a massive Republican plan to cut federal support for health coverage,” Trumka wrote.
On Wednesday, the Senate voted 51-48 along party lines to begin debating the budget resolution Republicans hope will start to dismantle Obamacare. De-
bate will continue this week — followed by a vote on a number of budget amendments.
Trumka’s full-throated defense of Obamacare follows a few tense years when the AFL-CIO and other unions tried to force the White House to drop the socalled “Cadillac tax” from the law.
It mandated a 40% tax on employer-provided plans with generous benefits. The White House plan was to use that revenue to fund other parts of the law.
But many of the Cadillac tax plans were negotiated by unions — raising fears the tax would be passed on to their members.
Intense lobbying got the tax provision put on a back burner until 2020.
But even with that issue still in play, the AFL-CIO will fight for a health care program that “does not force working people to make impossible choices,” said Trumka.
“The future of health care in America requires you to abandon these (repeal) plans and instead work with us to pursue sensible reforms to the system,” his letter concluded.
The AFL-CIO has also started an outreach among its members to educate them about what repeal could mean for them.
Even though many union workers are covered through plans provided by their labor organization, some do rely on Obamacare, said Bill Samuel, director of government affairs at the AFL-CIO.
And others have family members who are covered through the exchange, he said.
“The Republican plan to cut Medicare, Medicaid and ACA will Make America Sick Again,” says an AFL-CIO tweet listing all the possible evils of a repeal.
Republicans have not detailed what it will cost the American public to kill the Affordable Care Act — but an independent study released last week estimated a $140 billion loss in federal funding for health care by 2019. That in turn would trigger “losses in employment, economic activity and state and local revenues,” according to the Commonwealth Fund and George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health.
The study also noted federal health care dollars “flow to hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and other providers” and said a repeal “would result in nearly 3 million lost jobs by 2021” and deeper economic cuts on the state level.
“From 2019 to 2023, there will be a cumulative $1.5 trillion loss in gross state products and a $2.6 trillion reduction in business output,” the study found.
“State and local tax revenues also will fall during this period, dropping by $48 billion.”
In New York, the repeal of Obamacare would hurt the annual budget by about $3.7 billion, Gov. Cuomo said last week.
Some 2.7 million New Yorkers could lose their insurance coverage if the federal law is dropped.