Earlier this month, I joined Senator John Thune (R-SD) to introduce the Union Bailout Prevention Act. This bill would prevent the Obama administration from granting unions a special exemption from Obamacare.

While we work to bring this bill up for a vote, we have to remain vigilant as this Administration makes it a practice to impose its will through the regulatory process when legislative success is unachievable. 

That’s why I joined twenty of my colleagues to urge the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Sylvia Burwell to prohibit union health plans from receiving a carve-out in Obamacare, specifically premium assistance tax credits that are intended for the uninsured to purchase health insurance – a benefit no non-union member in America would receive.

Our letter reads in part, “The new health care law is clear that taxpayer-funded premium assistance credits are intended for low-to-middle income Americans without access to affordable insurance through an employer and who purchase health insurance through the new state-based exchanges. The fact is that Taft-Hartley union health plans are not exchange-based plans—rather, they are employer-sponsored health plans. Providing union members with a benefit not afforded to non-union employees is grossly unfair to every non-union worker in America who would receive no such special carve out from the health care law.”

Click on the attachment below to read the letter in its entirety.