Labor Union Health Fund Drops Children's Health Coverage, Blames ObamaCare

How do you know when your fancy new progressive health law ain't working so well? Even health funds run by big labor unions blame decisions to drop kids' coverage on the law's new health insurance burdens:

One of the largest union-administered health-insurance funds in New York is dropping coverage for the children of more than 30,000 low-wage home attendants, union officials said. The union blamed financial problems it said were caused by the state's health department and new national health-insurance requirements.

The fund is administered by 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union….The fund informed its members late last month that their dependents will no longer be covered as of Jan. 1, 2011. Currently about 6,000 children are covered by the benefit fund, some until age 23.

The problem? One of the law's new "consumer benefits"—the requirement that health plans cover dependents (children) up until age 26—is just too daggone expensive:

New federal health-care reform legislation requires plans with dependent coverage to expand that coverage up to age 26," Behroozi wrote in a letter to members Oct. 22. "Our limited resources are already stretched as far as possible, and meeting this new requirement would be financially impossible."

Supporters of the overhauls have shrugged off cost-concerns by saying that, well, they're not that expensive. After all, the increased age requirement for dependents only drives up average plan premiums by about one percent. That may not sound like much, but any new costs at all can spell trouble for a financially strapped health fund. And in this case, it looks like the union health plan was in trouble before the health overhaul passed (it also ended up in a dispute with state health regulators). So while the PPACA's new regulations don't account for all the fund's coverage reductions and fiscal trouble, they certainly aren't making the situation any easier.

More on the PPACA and children's health coverage here and here.