Fox: Many large companies dropping health care insurance for their retirees

Fox News Channel | 3/25/10

[3catsanadog]

Donald Trump was on Cavuto and said that that is exactly what the CEO's and Boards of Directors and the leaders in big and small companies are working out right now - and that is the direction they are heading - dropping the health benefit and paying the cheaper fine/penalty/tax - whatever it is it is called - the 8% of payroll.

And why not? If health care benefits cost a company 10%+ of payroll, it'd be foolish for a company to continue to carry that charge.

I work for a large hospital system that has its own healthcare insurance company. I don't know how this'll play out with the new law.

[reformedliberal]

You could be correct. I cannot see the future.

Will those countries welcome competition with their existing hospitals, clinics and medical staff? If the local providers will treat foreigners and the care and facilities are up to our standards, what will the governments of those countries decide? Likely it will depend on paying those governments something.

What will American foreign relations, government to government, look like? Will they be vulnerable to zerO in any way? Are there any sanctions that zerO, Chavez or any other Latin American leader could bring to bear?

Will there be affordable transportation to those places for anyone except the still-wealthy? Will the US government by then control the airlines?

With IRS oversight, albeit with less (as of now) power of sanction than we fear (as of now), will there be *surcharges* for anyone using foreign care?

Capitalism is hard-wired into humanity, but it has in the past proven vulnerable to various other -isms, leading to, in some instances, decades of futile battles. These are always in the name of *the people* and always borderline insane, IMO.

I have run my own tiny business for 35 years. Even at my level, I want it to survive. But want in one hand and (fill in the blank) in the other and which one fills up faster?

Companies are made up of individuals. Most folks, when the obstacles become insurmountable, look for the easiest way to get around and others change their course entirely. Only a very few will fight to the death, just as only a few have the resources to actively resist tyranny.

Going overseas or off shore is fraught with difficulties for both the providers and the patients. Same for someone just looking to expatriate. Things are always changing and one’s opponents are always thinking. This entire abomination has nothing at all to do with healthcare. It is not only about control, it is also about destruction of the very system they control and, by extension, us. In the end, it will be about the persuasion of power, as the fascists have already stated. If it brings anyone’s assets to their side of the equation, they might *allow* it. And they might also decide at any time to attempt to control the workarounds and various escape hatches.

And I agree with your conclusion. We must suffer a Fall in order to experience a Restoration.

[wordsofearnest]

If they wanted to do something radical they would take away the tax sheltered status of insurance premiums.