Budget & Tax, Health Care, Higher Education

Turmoil at Harvard!

January 8, 2015

Harvard has long seen itself as the source of all wisdom in American public policy — the faculty there were not just vocal, but instrumental, in pushing for Obamacare — so it was with barely concealed delight that many observers watched the recent eruption of faculty indignation when they learned that their university-sponsored health insurance costs would go up … thanks in large measure to Obamacare!

It seems that certain provisions of the misnamed Affordable Care Act will now force Harvard faculty members and other employees to pay higher deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses for many forms of care. One irate faculty member called this “taxing the sick.”

Well, yes, that’s exactly what Obamacare did and does. Many observers tried to point that out when the law was first being debated, but its supporters — including just about everyone at Harvard — pooh-poohed those objections.

There’s undoubtedly more petard-hoisting to come as others who assured us that Obamacare would be swell confront its long-term costs. (For example, the very hospital lobby which lobbied for Obamacare is now sweating bullets because some state policymakers have the good sense to reject the Obamacare Medicaid expansion.) For now, write your favorite Harvard faculty member and note “We told you so.”

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