And Waxman is going to get to the bottom of it.
Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, has summoned some of the nation’s top executives to Capitol Hill to defend their assessment that the new national health care reform law will cost their companies hundreds of millions of dollars in health insurance expenses. Waxman is also demanding that the executives give lawmakers internal company documents related to health care finances — a move one committee Republicans describes as “an attempt to intimidate and silence opponents of the Democrats’ flawed health care reform legislation.”
On Thursday and Friday, the companies — so far, they include AT&T, Verizon, Caterpillar, Deere, Valero Energy, AK Steel and 3M — said a tax provision in the new health care law will make it far more expensive to provide prescription drug coverage to their retired employees. Now, both retirees and current employees of those companies are wondering whether the new law could mean reduced or canceled benefits for them in the future.
The health care reform bill increases costs to companies, and those that are publicly traded are required by law to immediately make adjustments for new laws. So a bunch of them are. That’s apparently not what the Democrats wanted, so we’ll have hearings. Go figure.
Any predictions on what they do when health insurance premiums skyrocket?
Windy Recycling Day 