Congress passed the bill without knowing what was in it. Barack Obama signed it without reading it. Now it looks as though the Associated Press reported on ObamaCare without comprehending its content. Readers will have to scroll far down to discover that the elimination of a key tax break that kept retirees on company prescription-medication plans will mean dumping millions of seniors onto Medicare — and that the AP ignored it until now…
Over the past year, I’ve repeatedly warned about the dangers of static tax analysis. That process considers changes in tax policy without considering its impact on behavior. The closure of this “loophole,” as Robert Gibbs called it yesterday, is a perfect example of this stunted thinking.
The Democrats in Congress argued that they would gain $5.4 billion in revenue by eliminating the tax break enacted in the 2003 Medicare Part D program as an incentive for businesses to keep their retirees out of the Medicare system. Instead, they have given businesses a reason to dump their retirees out of the private networks and into the Part D system now. Not only will the expected tax revenues never appear, but now we will have to spend a lot more money covering those prescriptions out of public funds. The seniors in these programs will suffer most of all, as the Part D coverage is vastly inferior to the private plans offered by businesses in the private sector.
Also today, ATT announced that ObamaCare will result in unexpected losses to the company exceeding one billion dollars. But if misery loves company, ATT has it:
Industrial companies with employer-based retiree benefits are likely to post similar cost increases, including aerospace giant Boeing Co., insurer MetLife Inc. and truck-maker Navistar International Corp.
“Deere and Caterpillar are bellwether companies and it’s hard to believe that they are unique,” said Longbow Research analyst Eli Lustgarten. “We expect that most companies will have to adjust to the new regulations.”
I don’t remember the widespread debate last weekend about these corporate losses or the policy failure that resulted in retirees receiving inferior health care at tax payer’s expense at a time when corporations willingly shouldered the cost for superior care. Oh, that’s right, we didn’t have time to read the bill. But now that we are a week past the ObamaCare vote you can watch this from CBS and determine who was right and who was wrong. I like the part where Speaker Pelosi says this:
The bill, she said, would lead to “healthier lives, more liberty to pursue hopes and dreams and happiness.”
I guess that statement is no longer operative but remember, we’ve had just one week to decipher this monstrosity.
