On August 7, Covered California – the program of the California Health Benefit Exchange established by the California Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to implement the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka ObamaCare) – announced that it had executed agreements with twelve insurance companies in its market for individuals.
But wait! On September 4, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) sued the California Health Benefit Exchange for the purpose of disqualifying Kaiser Permanente from participation in the program. (See National Union of Healthcare Workers v. California Health Benefit Exchange.) Of course, the lawsuit against Kaiser isn’t really about health care: it’s about union organizing.
There has been surprisingly little news coverage of this lawsuit, with the Sacramento Business Journal being the only news source with firsthand reporting on it. (See “Union Seeks to Block Kaiser from Health Benefit Exchange.”) Perhaps the topic is too complex or obscure, or perhaps news organizations are hesitant right now to show weaknesses in ObamaCare.
However, I reported on the lawsuit in my September 10, 2013 article in www.UnionWatch.org: Union Files Lawsuit Exploiting ObamaCare in California for Organizing Purposes. I introduce the article by directing readers to “Add ObamaCare to the list of laws that California unions are exploiting for ‘corporate campaign’ strategies to coerce labor agreements or exert pressure during labor disputes.”
