Photo Courtesy White house
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, second from left with Sen. Dick Durbin at the White House, and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi were targets of an irate letter from labor union leaders over the Congressional health care plan being implemented by President Obama’s administration.
Kids learn about energy NV Energy, which has a working relationship with higher education in Nevada, is supplying funds so that scientists from the Desert Research Institute—a scientific arm of Nevada higher education— can join in helping educate pre-kindergarten to high school students in energy issues. The program is called GreenPower. NV Energy is ponying up $70,400 and the NV Energy Foundation another $180,000. Besides helping teach students, the program also aids their instructors with continuing education classes. NVE president Michael Yakira said in a prepared statement, “The work that the Desert Research Institute is doing through its GreenPower program to teach our youth about renewable energy and energy efficiency aligns with our company’s commitment to sustainability, education and our communities.”
Hospital denied accreditation The Joint Commission, an organization that accredits hospitals, has issued a preliminary denial of accreditation to Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Clark County. The hospital remains accredited while it tries to remedy the numerous failings identified by the accreditation teams that visited the hospital twice in May. Rawson-Neal is the hospital that has been accused of dumping patients by busing them out of state, often to locations where they knew no one. State health and human services director Mike Willden issued a statement: “Rawson Neal Psychiatric Hospital has strengthened policies, changed processes, increased oversight, and enhanced staff training. It has undergone rigorous review by a number of entities over the past few months including retaining nationally recognized experts to evaluate how Nevada currently treats mentally ill persons at this facility. In addition, disciplinary actions have been taken against individuals who failed to follow hospital policies. ... We are disappointed by the Joint Commission’s decision to move for a preliminary denial of accreditation, which appears to be based on outdated survey information and is not an accurate reflection of the hospital’s current practices and policies.” The Joint Commission inspections at the hospital were made 12 weeks ago and 10 weeks ago. The first review took two days; the second took four, according to the commission. A few days after that statement, Willden said the state would not appeal the Joint Commission findings: “The appeal process also does not take into account the follow-up surveys conducted by Joint Commission itself which concluded the facility is in compliance with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Conditions of Participation. Rather than pursue an appeal, Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services (SNAMHS) plans to request a new accreditation review in the near future when the hard work and great effort to improve services for our patients will be considered and recognized by the Joint Commission.” A spokesperson for Gov. Brian Sandoval said he would ask the Interim Finance Committee—a body of legislators who act on funding issues when the full legislature is out of session—to speed up allocation of already-appropriated mental health funds. The particulars of the accreditation teams’ findings on the hospital can be read on our Newsview blog at http://tinyurl.com/12rojzy.
State flag recycled The design for the new Nevada commemorative license plate to mark the state’s planned 150th birthday has been released. Like the plans for the year, it is relatively low key—a modified version of the state flag. The 125th plate showed a miner sitting on a hillside holding a pick and gazing into the distance. The centennial plate was a strip reading “Nevada Centennial” flanked by the dates 1864 and 1964 that drivers were required to place across the bottom of their regular annual plates.
—Dennis Myers 8 | RN&R |
AUGUST 1, 2013
Labor starts to bail Democratic health care plan support erodes In a startling development, three national labor union leaders, including the head of Nevada’s Culinary Union, by have sent a letter to Democratic Dennis Myers congressional leaders blasting the Democratic health care plan, which they say “will shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40-hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.” The letter went to Harry Reid in the Senate and Nancy Pelosi in the House and said that the union movement is being taken for granted at a time when other groups that have been less supportive of health care changes are having their complaints addressed by the White House.
“They’re asking us to pay a tax for which we get no benefit.” Richard Daly Washoe labor leader
the letter from the three national labor union presidents to congressional leaders Pelosi and reid can be read in its entirety on our Newsview blog.
“Since the ACA [Affordable Care Act]was enacted, we have been bringing our deep concerns to the administration, seeking reasonable regulatory interpretations to the statute that would help prevent the destruction of non-profit health plans. As you both know first-hand, our persuasive arguments have been disregarded and met with
a stone wall by the White House and the pertinent agencies. This is especially stinging because other stakeholders have repeatedly received successful interpretations for their respective grievances. Most disconcerting, of course, is last week’s huge accommodation for the employer community—extending the statutorily mandated ‘December 31, 2013’ deadline for the employer mandate and penalties.” The Nevada unionist who signed the letter is D. Taylor, president of UNITE HERE, as the Culinary is now known. (Taylor goes by his initial, which stands for Donald.) His union endorsed Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Nevada Democratic presidential caucuses—the first major union to do so. Taylor’s union represents about 60,000 Nevada workers. Joining Taylor in signing the letter were United Food and Commercial Workers president Joseph Hansen and Teamsters president James P. Hoffa. The distress of the union leaders stems from the July 2 Obama administration decision to postpone for a year the employer mandates called for in the health plan, the ACA. It is uncertain whether that postponement is legal. The three labor leaders called the deadline “statutory,” which would mean that delaying it would be illegal.
“First, the law creates an incentive for employers to keep employees’ work hours below 30 hours a week,” the letter reads. “Numerous employers have begun to cut workers’ hours to avoid this obligation, and many of them are doing so openly. The impact is twofold: fewer hours means less pay while also losing our current health benefits. “Second, millions of Americans are covered by non-profit health insurance plans like the ones in which most of our members participate. These non-profit plans are governed jointly by unions and companies under the Taft-Hartley Act. Our health plans have been built over decades by working men and women. Under the ACA as interpreted by the Administration, our employees will [be] treated differently and not be eligible for subsidies afforded other citizens. As such, many employees will be relegated to second-class status and shut out of the help the law offers to for-profit insurance plans. “And finally, even though nonprofit plans like ours won’t receive the same subsidies as for-profit plans, they’ll be taxed to pay for those subsidies. Taken together, these restrictions will make nonprofit plans like ours unsustainable, and will undermine the health-care market of viable alternatives to the big health insurance companies.” In case Pelosi and Reid missed the message, the union leaders spelled it out for them: “Congress wrote this law; we voted for you. We have a problem; you need to fix it. The unintended consequences of the ACA are severe. Perverse incentives are already creating nightmare scenarios.” In 2009, unions joined the push for a Democratic health care plan with some reluctance, because one of the benefits unions have long offered their members is health care benefits.
Second letter Reaction to the letter came quickly, particularly from conservatives. National Review, the magazine founded by conservative leader William F. Buckley Jr., called it “remarkably blunt language.” A story in the right wing Washington Times ran under the headline, “Obama’s health care law shifts big unions’ political alliances to GOP.”
