Documents reveal AT&T, Verizon, others, thought about dropping employer-sponsored ben

Dr.Traveler

Mathematician
Aug 31, 2009
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Documents reveal AT&T, Verizon, others, thought about dropping employer-sponsored benefits

(Fortune) -- The great mystery surrounding the historic health care bill is how the corporations that provide coverage for most Americans -- coverage they know and prize -- will react to the new law's radically different regime of subsidies, penalties, and taxes. Now, we're getting a remarkable inside look at the options AT&T, Deere, and other big companies are weighing to deal with the new legislation.

Internal documents recently reviewed by Fortune, originally requested by Congress, show what the bill's critics predicted, and what its champions dreaded: many large companies are examining a course that was heretofore unthinkable, dumping the health care coverage they provide to their workers in exchange for paying penalty fees to the government.
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More at link.
 
For the record: I do not support the current effort at healthcare reform. Without a public option I do not think there is a point. The dismantling of the employee health care system is a nightmare to me and part of the reason I did not vote for McCain. To see it as a possiblity now does not make me very happy.
 
For the record: I do not support the current effort at healthcare reform. Without a public option I do not think there is a point. The dismantling of the employee health care system is a nightmare to me and part of the reason I did not vote for McCain. To see it as a possiblity now does not make me very happy.

The Insurance Industry fought the public option with billions of dollars. In return for dropping it, we got nothing in return.

If the response to the new bill is to drop employess or raise insurance rates the Government should reinstate the public option
 
That is very likely where this will end up going.

The current plan seems to have been a compromise based on the idea that the employee based system would stay in place. If it is doomed to die out, then the public option will likely be the end result.

If the government promises to repeal the penalties in favor of support for the public option, I'd imagine you'd see a lot of corporate $$$$ line up the political ads to support that now they can spend money on ads.
 
For the record: I do not support the current effort at healthcare reform. Without a public option I do not think there is a point. The dismantling of the employee health care system is a nightmare to me and part of the reason I did not vote for McCain. To see it as a possiblity now does not make me very happy.

The Insurance Industry fought the public option with billions of dollars. In return for dropping it, we got nothing in return.

If the response to the new bill is to drop employess or raise insurance rates the Government should reinstate the public option

As usual you are wrong, dead wrong. The insurance industry embraced the bill and provided funds for advertising to support it. They saw millions of new customers.

I am all in favor of ending tax deductibility of premiums. But in exchange for that I'd want significantly lower tax rates so people could buy their own.
 

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