Health care reform shaping up to be as divisive as stimulus package

Bizjournals ^ | Feb 13/16 | Kent Hoover Washington Bureau Chief

[xcamel]

Health care reform is still on the agenda this year in Congress, despite the departure of President Barack Obama’s point man on the issue.

{snip}

COBRA could be deadly

The House-Senate negotiations over the economic stimulus package could be an early indicator of how businesses will fare in health care reform. Business groups lobbied against including a House provision that would allow former employees who are 55 or older, or who have been with a company for 10 years, to receive health coverage through COBRA until they are eligible for Medicare at 65 or get coverage through another employer.

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, enacted in 1985, currently allows individuals to retain their company insurance coverage for up to 18 months after they leave their employers.

The problem with expanding COBRA, according to business groups, is this coverage would end up costing employers more than what the former employees would pay for it.

People in this age range who opt for COBRA “would be some of the worst risks imaginable,” Trautwein said. If this COBRA expansion is included in the final economic stimulus bill, it could “torpedo the chances for major health care reform in this Congress,” he said. Mandate could be job-killer

Meanwhile, NFIB is preparing for battle over employer mandates. Both Obama and Baucus have proposed requiring all but the smallest businesses to either provide a certain level of health insurance coverage to their employees or pay fees to the government.

A new NFIB study concluded that an employer mandate imposed in 2009 would result in the loss of 1.6 million jobs over the next five years.

Small businesses would account for two-thirds of losses. Labor-intensive industries such as construction and restaurants would be particularly hard-hit.

[xcamel]

Great - now when you FIRE somebody, you still have to pay 55% or 65% of their healthcare - retroactively to last september.. This could cost an 'average' employer 5-6000 a month in this economy.

The job-killers continue...

[indcons]

Healthcare sops (and related costs) to the unions brought about Chrysler’s and GM’s current problems. For all practical purposes, American car companies are primarily health insurance providers who ALSO make cars.

[pabianice]

This Vietnam vet notes that part of this plan involves slashing funding for the Veterans’ Administration’s medical care for vets and quadrupling the premiums and copays paid by retired military for TRICARE. The only part of the economy to be cut in the next three years is spending for military training, manning, maintenance, and healthcare. Could Obama be any more traitorous and loathsome?

[nmh]

The problem is health care is over priced.

Seeing how lousy the economy is ... and the AGE of these folks ... should they be denied health care coverage after 18 months? Yes, this will cost employers more but should they be without coverage when atleast they WORKED and out of no choice of their own are out on the street? Are they less valuable because of their AGE? Look at Medicare and ILLEGAS being given health care. How do you address this with NO INCOME but a measly unemployment income coming in?

[Pearls Before Swine]

Look at Medicare and ILLEGAS being given health care.

This was the one part of the bill (over 55 COBRA) that would have done me some good, even if (as I expected to) I paid the entire amount. Health care is completely screwed up because of government mandates which rob Peter to pay Paul. God help you if you fall off the insurance bandwagon, and have to pay the "normal" price, which is actually a government sanctioned opportunity to rip-off the consumer. As Howie Carr says, "I wanna be an illegal alien!" (bugle plays).

[grobdriver]

Could Obama be any more traitorous and loathsome?

Ummm... nope.
- Mike
USN, 1976-1984

[Sender]

I agree that this would be a job killer for employers, but I have also seen for myself that COBRA is not affordable for the average person anyway. When I was let go in 2005, I was offered COBRA coverage for thousands of dollars per year, at a time when I had no job. My only option was for my family to have no insurance. COBRA in its present form is a joke, unless one is somehow receiving more medical benefits than the absurd costs, for example if someone needed to continue very expensive cancer care.

What really worries me is full-blown, single-payer socialized healthcare. We will all have COBRA then...as they take most of our paychecks in taxes.

[pierrem15]

Just think of it as the French public worker retirement plan (like CFN): you get to retire at 54, because that’s when many employers will lower their liabilities by laying-off older employees.

[winkadink]

Thanks for your reply to the article. Where can I find out about the slashes for VA and Tricare? If you can help me, I would appreciate it.
And no. Obama can not be any more traitorous and loathsome.

[dervish]

“The problem is health care is over priced.”

Do you have any idea what the cost of AIDS, a preventable disease, is? How about the cost of covering illegals.

There I slashed health costs.

[socialismisinsidious]

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