ALG Editor’s Note: In the following featured commentary from the Washington Examiner, Mark Hemingway quotes an Americans for Limited Government on health care and unions.
Health care reform’s hidden $10 billion union payoff
By: Mark Hemingway?
It’s no secret unions have been campaigning hard for Democratic health care reform, but what’s less known is that the legislation includes huge payoffs for Big Labor. According to Americans for Limited Government, the House health care bill contains a whopping $10 billion in “reinsurance” money for unions:
What’s that “reinsurance” money for, exactly?
That’s simple – it’s a bailout for union leaders who have grossly “mismanaged” funds that were supposed to pay for their retirees’ insurance claims.
Of course in a bitterly ironic pill for taxpayers to swallow, at the same time Obama is hoping to shower money on these labor leaders for their ongoing corruption and incompetence, he has removed any accountability whatsoever over their future actions by rescinding Bush-era disclosure requirements on top union officials.
And while card check legislation languishes in Congress, tucked away in Senate health care bill is a provision that would bring on forced unionization:
In the $2.5 trillion Senate proposal, for example, a union-stacked “personal care attendants workforce advisory panel” would be established under the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). This panel would have the authority to compel union affiliation – and payment of union dues – in exchange for allowing “private” providers access to federal reimbursements for community care.
Similarly, the House proposal gives sweeping regulatory authority – including the approval of compulsory union dues – to DHHS in its role as the provider of public plans.
“The House resolution establishes a scenario that would effectively exclude non-union employers from eligibility to work on program-funded contracts,” a recent opinion-editorial published in the Houston Chronicle noted. “It also requires participating health care providers to pay wages and benefits that have been collectively bargained or that union-friendly appointees determine are competitive.”
The scam works like this: In order to become eligible for federal reimbursements, employees who provide home care must agree to be “reclassified” as federal employees, with the strings of compulsory union membership and dues attached, of course.
Note that this forced unionization scam was a favorite ploy of disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. He’s not exactly a figure the Senate should look to for legislative inspiration.
