A feature not a bug

DCblogger. The problem that unions will be facing in negotiations are totally predictable.

Before it's over, they'll be lucky if they can bargain to keep their health insurance at the "bronze level."

Hope to make it back for further comment.

The article "Uh-O! Obamacare Poses Challenge To Collective Bargaining," provides an excellent overview of some of the challenges which the enactment of the ACA poses for union members. As a former member of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), I thank DCblogger for linking to this piece, and highly recommend it.

I took the liberty of highlighting several main points which also pertain to the broader public.in the excerpt below. [The emphases are mine, in both my comments and the article excerpt.]

Presently, Taft-Hartly group plans don't age-rate. So, everybody gets the same rate whether they happen to be a 25-yer-old just starting out, or a 59-year-old single mother with growing children.

But that's not the way the new state health exchanges will operate. Under the new guidelines, insurance companies operating within each state exchange will be allowed to charge older members three times as much as younger people."There's going to be lots of winners and losers," Kaplan said. "The 59-year-old single mom is gong to pay more because the individual exchanges can age-rate."

Low-wage workers still appear to be the group that the Affordable Care Act will most directly affect once it kicks in.

"There is a quiet battle going on in D.C. over the regulations writing to the Affordable Healthcare Act," Dudzic said. "There's some concern that the regulations will allow, not only the new services under the Affordable Healthcare Act, but even things like Medicaid to be privatized by the states."

Thanks again for this information.