"Will HIR Really Cost Corporations Millions?"

[Clio the Leo]

Will HIR Really Cost Corporations Millions?
by mcjoan
Mon Mar 29, 2010 at 05:30:04 PM PDT

As fast out of the gate post-HIR passage as the insurers claiming they don't have to cover sick kids, were some of the nation's biggest corporations, claiming the measure was going to bankrupt them. While the Chamber of Commerce might not be interested in directly funding a repeal campaign, that's not going to stop member corporations from boosting the effort.

AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Caterpillar Inc. and Deere & Co. have all said that the reform will cost them "millions, if not billions of dollars" because of a change in the subsidy employers have received from the government to provide retirees prescription drug coverage plans in Medicare part D. The clearest explanation, and debunking, comes form MarketWatch:

As explained in plain English in today’s Wall Street journal, “companies that provide this benefit, as AT&T does, receive a federal subsidy, plus they can deduct the value of this subsidy from their taxes. The health overhaul cancels the deductibility of the subsidy.”

Let me ask a question of readers here in even plainer English: Can anybody actually be upset about the fact that giant corporations have to stop taking tax deductions for welfare checks they get for providing health care to their employees and retirees?

Imagine if you will, the government sending you a check to pay for your prescription drugs and then you getting to deduct that amount from your income tax statement. HEY, BIG GOVERNMENT, KEEP YOUR DAMN HANDS OFF MY SUBSIDIES AND ENTITLEMENTS!

So it ends double-dipping for these huge corporations.

more...
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/3/29/852157/-Will-HIR-Really-Cost-Corporations-Millions

[shedevil69taz]

1. they'll just make up the difference

By reducing the number of people they employ.

[TomCADem]

2. Plus, the "charge" is not an out of pocket cost...

They are just reducing their future estimated earnings based on the projected impact of the law. However, there is no actual money immediately being paid out of pocket.