New York City Teachers Union Is Largest Recipient of Obamacare Waiver; Parent AFT Union Spent $1.9 Million on Obama Election
Fred Lucas | CNSNews.com
January 31, 2011
The United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the union representing New York City’s public school teachers, is the largest beneficiary of a waiver from one of the provisions in the health-care law signed by President Barack Obama last year.
The UFT is a chapter of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which spent $1.9 million on the election of President Barack Obama in 2008. The UFT is also an affiliate of the New York State United Teachers, which spent $46,139 in independent expenditures on the election of Obama.
The health care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, requires that annual caps on how much an insurance plan will pay in benefits for an enrollee in any given year must be eliminated by 2014. Under the law, the Department of Health and Human Services is now phasing the coverage limits out. In 2011, yearly caps can be no less than $750,000; in 2012, they can be no less than $1.25 million; and in 2013, they can be no less than $2 million in 2013.
The waivers granted to the UFT locals exempt them from having to comply with the phasing out of the annual benefits caps. A total of 351,000 enrollees are in the UFT’s health insurance plan, the UTF Welfare Fund.
The UFT enrollees comprise about 15 percent of the total 2.2 million enrollees on plans with one-year waivers. The UFT insurance plan has more enrollees than any of the other 733 entities on the list that are receiving HHS-approved waivers.
An example of an annual limit is found in the UFT Welfare Fund, which caps spending on prescription drugs at $100,000 per year per policy holder. Under the HHS regulation to phase out annual limits, the cap would have to be $750,000. Thus, without a waiver from the federal government, the Welfare Fund would not be in compliance with the new health care law.
The waivers are granted if the Department of Health and Human Services determines “compliance in the interim final regulations would result in a significant decrease in access to benefits or a significant increase in premiums,” according to a Sept. 3 memo by Steve L. Larson, director of the HHS Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight.
In retaining the lower $100,000 limit on prescription drug coverage, the UFT reported that a waiver “was granted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services based on the [Welfare] Fund’s representation that providing $750,000 in coverage for prescription drugs for 2011 would result in a significant decrease in your access to benefits.”
The UFT notice, posted on its Web site, explained that providing insurance would be cost-prohibitive without the waiver.
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So, $1.9 million buys you a waiver?
This despicable labor union,no teacher testing,below average graduation rate,tenured morons and payed nonperformers.This union and it’s members are the epitome of what has gone wrong with public education.The fact that this President endorses this substandard collection of overpaid malcontents is a slap in the face to all Americans.