releases: https://www.isakson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=bc1f6c7b-dea8-4a9c-8a33-fbb3ea3e36aa
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://www.isakson.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=bc1f6c7b-dea8-4a9c-8a33-fbb3ea3e36aa | Isakson, Chambliss to Administration: Don't Give Unions Special Obamacare Carve-Outs | 2013-11-14 | 2013 | 2013-11 | Republican | House | GA | Johnny Isakson | I000055 | www.isakson.senate.gov | legacy | WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., joined 18 of their Republican colleagues today in criticizing the Obama administration’s plan to exempt unions from an Obamacare fee that other employers, charities, and faith-based organizations will be forced to pay. The proposed carve-out for the unions is “cronyism at its worst,” the senators said. Isakson is a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over Obamacare, and he serves as the ranking Republican on the Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which oversees labor unions. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a regulation on October 30, 2013, stating that the agency intends to propose further rulemaking that would aim to exempt certain Taft-Hartley union health plans from the reinsurance fee mandated by Obamacare. In a letter to Sylvia Burwell, director of the Office of Management and Budget, the senators wrote: “The [reinsurance] fee is undeniably expensive for unions, employers, charities and faith-based organizations whose health plans are not available in the new health insurance exchanges and will not see any of those dollars returned to them. For the year 2014, the fee is $63 per covered life—a multi-million dollar levy for larger organizations.” They continued: “The regulation makes no justification as to why union members should be exempted from this fee while other similarly situated organizations (and, ultimately, their beneficiaries) must continue to pay it. “It has been widely reported that labor unions recently sought an exemption from the reinsurance fee through Congress but were rightly rebuffed. To think that the Obama Administration would consider such an action that benefits one group over another can only be characterized as cronyism at its worst. “Self-insured health insurance plans—whether or not they also self administer—are all facing the same dilemma of being forced to subsidizeinsurance companies participating in the new exchange. The regulatory process is meant to implement the law as written, not as the Administration wishes it were. If the law will unfairly hurt certain groups, it should be repealed or amended through Congress.” Click here to read the entire letter. Isakson and Chambliss are co-sponsors of the Union Bailout Prevention Act, which would prevent the Obama administration from granting unions’ request for special Obamacare premium tax subsidies for union members’ health care plans. Isakson and Chambliss have voted to defund or repeal Obamacare almost 60 times, and they continue to support its full repeal. Chambliss and Isakson are both co-sponsors of numerous legislative proposals that would repeal the law in full or provisions in the law, including both the Obamacare Repeal Act, S.177, and, more recently, the Defund Obamacare Act, S.1292 The letter was also signed by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), John Thune (R-N.D.), John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), and Tim Scott (R-S.C.). | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |