Obamacare Hits the Campus

The other day I mentioned that things might really get rough for Obama when health insurance cancellation notices hit elite Washington journalists.  I neglected to consider what might happen if it began to happen to . . . college professors.  A professor at an elite university writes in with this account (name withheld by request):

We are now in the process of enrolling in Medical Reimbursement Accounts for next year, and a visit to the Human Resources Department confirms  that the year after next, we will not have the insurance plan that we  have now. Although my college is self-insured and falls under ERISA laws, the plan the college provides is a “Cadillac” plan that is simply  “unsustainable,” I was told. Not only are the tax implications on Cadillac plans too onerous to support, but, for reasons unspecified, the will not allow the college to continue its current insurance. I was worried about this because although we are self-insured, we have an outside administrator, which means we, too, are vulnerable to the tentacles of the ACA.

No one knows this because the Human Resources people have kept all the attention focused on next year, 2014, when things will remain largely the same. And very few people have been following this, blithely assuming that the Republicans who opposed the law were just partisan meanies.  But they will learn, sooner or later, (after the mid-term elections???) that 2015 is going to be a whole new ball game.  If they like their health care, tough luck.

Of course, about 99% of my colleagues voted for Obama, but they have no idea that they are going to lose the excellent health insurance that they currently enjoy.

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