The unions have mounted an aggressive effort to change the administration’s mind. They argue that their plans serve a different purpose, and a different group, than traditional employer-based plans, and they deserve a waiver.
They also make a raw political argument that they helped the Obama administration pass the law, and they deserve to be taken care of during implementation. “This is especially stinging because other stakeholders have repeatedly received successful interpretations for their respective grievances,” the three unions wrote in their letter. “Most disconcerting of course is last week’s huge accommodation for the employer community—extending the statutorily mandated ‘December 31, 2013’ deadline for the employer mandate and penalties.”
Tonight, the effort failed. A senior administration official tells me that the administration “does not see a legal way for individuals in multiemployer group health plans to receive individual market tax credits as well as the favorable tax treatment associated with employer-provided health insurance at the same time.”
If there is anything having to do with the implementation of this law that hasn’t proven to be a nightmare thus far, it is a better kept secret than the reason people keep hiring Keith Olbermann. There are still a few far-left cheerleaders for Obamacare but the reality is that both the people who bitterly opposed it and those who staunchly advocated for it are now admitting that it’s going to be a nightmare.
(almost) Four more years.
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