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Waivers Double to 222 as More Unions ‘Opt Out’ of ObamaCare

By: LaborUnionReport (Diary)  |  December 7th, 2010 at 06:00 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

For a law that was supposed to save America by making health care more affordable, the list of companies and unions who are being given the green light to ‘opt out’ seems to be growing by the day.

Since the last wave of ObamaCare waivers was released a few weeks ago, the number of unions and companies that have received ObamaCare waivers has doubled to 222.  The number of known unions that inhabit this list is near 50.

So far, here is the list of union inductees to the Do As We Say, Not As We Do Club:

  1. Bricklayers Local 1 of MD, VA and DC
  2. International Brotherhood of Trade Unions Health and Welfare Fund – Local 713
  3. Local 1102 Amalgamated Welfare Fund
  4. Local 1102 Health & Benefit Fund
  5. Local 1102 Welfare Fund– Lerner Employees
  6. Local 338 Affiliated Benefit Funds
  7. Operating Engineers Local 835 Health and Welfare Fund
  8. Retail, Wholesale & Dept. Store Union Local 1034 Welfare Fund
  9. United Food and Commercial Workers Union in Mount Laurel, New Jersey
  10. Indiana Teamsters Health Benefits Fund
  11. Service Employees International Union Local 1 Cleveland Welfare Fund
  12. Southern CA Pipe Trades Trust Fund
  13. Teamsters Local 522 Welfare Fund Roofers Division
  14. Texas Carpenters and Millwrights Health and Welfare Fund
  15. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1445 New Hampshire
  16. Amalgamated National Health Fund
  17. Plumbers and Pipefitters Local No. 630 Welfare Fund
  18. United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1000
  19. 1199SEIU Greater New York Benefit Fund
  20. Cleveland Bakers Teamsters
  21. DC Cement Masons Welfare Fund
  22. Indiana Teamsters Health Benefits Fund
  23. Laundry and Dry Cleaning Workers Local No. 52
  24. Social Service Employees Union Local 371
  25. United Food and Commercial Workers Union (Mount Laurel, NJ)
  26. United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1459
  27. United Food and Commercial Workers and Participating Employers Interstate Health and Welfare Fund
  28. Laborers’ International Union of North America Local Union No. 616 Health and Welfare Plan
  29. Service Employees Benefit Fund
  30. UFCW Allied Trade Health & Welfare Trust
  31. United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1995
  32. IBEW No.915
  33. Asbestos Workers Local 53 Welfare Fund
  34. Florida Trowel Trades
  35. Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 123 Welfare Fund
  36. UFCW Local 227
  37. UFCW Maximus Local 455
  38. Local 25 SEIU
  39. UFCW Local 1262
  40. Local 802 Musicians Health Fund
  41. Greater Metropolitan Hotel
  42. Local 17 Hospitality Benefit Fund
  43. GS-ILA
  44. Health and Welfare Benefit System
  45. I.U.P.A.T.
  46. Transport Workers
  47. UFT Welfare Fund
  48. PMPS-ILA
  49. PS-ILA

If ObamaCare keeps going at the rate it’s going (and it hasn’t even gone into effect yet), perhaps the GOP won’t need to repeal it–We can all just get waivers instead.

[Not. Holding. Breath.]
_________________

“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.”  Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

X-posted.

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COMMENTS

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  • eastbaylarry

    I would be interested in seeing how this number grows and what percentage it becomes in the end.

    Another interesting number would be how many policies are lost because a vaiver could not be obtained.

    These are the numbers our Congressional new-hires will need to use to beat Obama over the head while defunding this beast.

    • http://www.laborunionreport.com LaborUnionReport

      It is currently at 222, so it will be easy to watch going forward.

      • http://www.laborunionreport.com LaborUnionReport

        http://www.hhs.gov/ociio/regulations/approved_applications_for_waiver.html

        ;)

        • eastbaylarry

          That’s pretty high for only 222 vaivers.

          I’d still like a count of policies cancelled due to OCare because a vaiver was denied.

          • http://www.laborunionreport.com LaborUnionReport

            And, if I recall, Mickey D’s was about 30,000 employees.

    • rickindenver

      I would like to encourage my employer to seek a waiver! This could be another way to defeat obamacare through “death by a thousand cuts”! There are about 15,000 employees at the company I work for. It sure would be a nice albotross to hang on Obama’s neck in 2012!

  • AceInTX

    Put EVERYONE under the gun…and then give waivers to the good boys and girls who play the game the way you want them to….as you enforce the draconian measures on the rest who don’t do things the way Obama would have you do

    • Common_Cents

      Politicians invest our money for political return, not economic return.

  • dog_nut

    if you’re asking the same thing I’m wondering, which is how many/who has been turned down for a waiver?

  • Scope

    fuel to the fire of the lawsuits that are ongoing against Obamacare? Wouldn’t it take a strong argument from the government to protect some classes, but, not others?

  • Mike Ferguson

    Granted I am not a lawyer or a legal scholar but I did read the monster bill all the way through, I don’t remember there being a provision for anyone, personal or business, to have a waiver from complying with the terms of the bill. So my question is where are the waivers coming from and isn’t the federal government breaking its own law by granting them?

    • Scope

      wouldn’t it also strengthen the states lawsuits against Ocare? There have been some that want to argue that the case is not yet “ripe” because no one yet has been harmed by the legislation. If that is the case, then why exempt some before it is even fully implemented, or before any individual is “harmed.”

    • http://www.laborunionreport.com LaborUnionReport

      I thought there was much left to the interpretation of the Health Czar, as well as the Secretary of HHS.

      And, by the way, if you read the monster all the way through, you probably have the qualifications now to be a lawyer and a legal scholar!…Quite the feat! :)

      • Mike Ferguson
    • Menlo

      With all the references to “The Secretary” and his or her power to do so many different things, it’s not that surprising. I almost wondered when reading if Sebelius’s successor could de facto repeal the whole thing.

      It will be interesting to see what happens when the insurance corporations themselves start asking for waivers.

      • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • pilgrim

    Here is a link to a brief history of the Magna Carta

    http://www.the-orb.net/textbooks/muhlberger/magna_carta.html

    First, princes and kings had made their governments more profitable and powerful through systemization. Bureaucracy made it possible to impose the royal will by means short of brute force. This kind of regularity in government created a further demand for it — from the prince’s subjects.

    Second, strong rulers profited from their ability to grant privileges to their subjects for a price. They made it possible to buy the king’s good will and dispensation from the rules his officers had devised. The granting of privileges created a demand for more privileges. The political classes felt that what some could buy should be available to all. Eventually this would lead to a demand for rights, for a change in the rules in the favor of the subjects. But even this demand presupposed the prince’s ability to maintain a peaceful and orderly community in which those rights meant something.

    Finally, the greater power of 12th and 13th century princes over all their subjects, and not just their immediate vassals, welded their subjects into a political class with certain common problems, fears, and interests. Princely power created a political public with a common interest in controlling the power of the prince.

    • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
      • http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Politics-Examiner Mike gamecock DeVine
  • GreyCloak

    I noticed this one on this list, with which I have some familiarity. It is one of several Union Health Plans that are alternatives for Federal employees.

    If the Federal Government wants to grant exemptions, denying such to every Plan that insures Federal employees would be a first step in making sure that ObamaCare is egalitarian.

    FBI: before granting an exemption, it would be interesting to check for duplicate SSNs among Plan participants and comparing enrollees’ information against Federal employment rolls. Federal Health plans are not supposed to cover Union (non-government) employees.

  • randythearm

    What we thought was a change to a revolution in American healthcare reform, has turned into a nightmare. U.S. healthcare has turned into “Obama and The ObamaCare Factory,” where only the few receive the golden ticket of an ObamaCare waiver. Check this ObamaCare watchdog site out, good stuff: http://bit.ly/boOLMa

  • runner12

    is known as ObamaCare. The people who wanted this nightmare plan are now being able to “opt out” of it while the rest of us are stuck with it. Unbelievable. But the silver lining is that the quickly rising numbers of waivers being granted may just hasten the demise of this POC. I think it actually provides us with more ammunition to use against the bill.

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