They backed ObamaCare and got a big break.
Some of the biggest local supporters of President Obama’s health-care-reform legislation — including the United Federation of Teachers and the giant health-care-workers union 1199 SEIU — received waivers from one of its costly provisions.
The two labor giants and a dozen or so other local firms and unions are among 222 waiver recipients nationwide. The UFT’s waiver covers the largest number of people in the country — 351,000.
The government-issued waivers, good for one year, provide an exemption from a provision in the new law that gradually increases an annual cap on benefits until that cap is entirely gone in 2014.
Big Obama booster 1199’s Greater New York Benefit Fund asked for a waiver because one of its plans — covering 4,500 New Jersey nursing-home workers — caps benefits at $50,000 a year, said spokeswoman Leah Gonzalez.
Republicans are trying to dismantle ObamaCare with a vote set for Wednesday to repeal the law they consider too expensive. But with the Senate controlled by the Democrats, the effort is expected to fail.