Union: Health-Care Reforms Not to Blame for Coverage Woes

[Omaha Steve]

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2010/12/01/union-health-care-reforms-not-to-blame-for-coverage-woes/

* December 1, 2010, 2:45 PM ET


Associated Press
Jason Morales, an 1199SEIU member from the Brooklyn, at a June protest in Albany, N.Y.

By Yuliya Chernova

A union health-insurance fund that dropped coverage for some 6,000 children in New York backed away from previous claims blaming, in part, health-care laws championed by the Obama administration for the decision.

A statement issued Tuesday by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, restated the union’s support for new federal health-care laws. That marked a something of a turnabout from a letter sent to union members in October, which seemed to fault a federal law making children eligible for coverage on their parents’ health plans until age 26.

As The Journal reported last month, the union benefit fund moved to drop coverage for the children of more than 30,000 low-wage home attendants.

Union officials said in a new statement Tuesday that the benefit fund “did not drop dependent coverage because of the new federal healthcare reform law.” The decision was due solely to rising insurance costs coupled with stagnant employer contributions, according to the statement.

“We applaud the new law’s commitment to extend coverage to millions of working Americans who are currently uninsured,” the union said Tuesday.

In an interview last month, Mitra Behroozi, executive director of benefit and pension funds for 1199SEIU, acknowledged that even without the health-care requirements under new federal laws, the benefit fund would have been struggling. “We would have had to reduce eligibility in some fashion at some point within the next year,” Behroozi said.

FULL story at link.