Facing questions from both parties in the Congress, the Obama Administration has now revealed how it has spent over $1.7 billion on part of the Obama health law, known as the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program.
This plan is intended to help companies pay the cost of health care for their early retirees, but lawmakers say it is wrongly benefiting companies like AT&T and General Electric, who have billions in profits on their bottom lines.
You might also notice as you go through this lengthy list, that some states which are currently suing the federal government over the Obama health law, are also getting money for their state retirement funds - Georgia, Virginia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, South Dakota and Wyoming have money coming directly to their retiree programs (there are also other states getting money for public employee unions in their states.)
One other important note is that the $5 billion part of the Obama health law was supposed to last until 2014, when the health reform law takes full effect - but, at this rate, the early retiree program will run out of money much sooner - so the feds say they will stop taking applications for this money at the end of April.
One final note of transparency about this list - my parent company, which used to be known as Cox Enterprises, but is now named Cox Media Group, is one of the 1300+ entities that was awarded money by the Obama Administration, just over $1 million.
Michigan received the most money at $319.8 million, with Texas next at $276.2 million. New Jersey, Ohio, California, New York, Illinois, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Connecticut rounded out the top ten in terms of overall money received under this program.
Here is the list of unions, companies, state and local governments and other business entities who received money under the Obama health law for their early retiree health programs:
Facing questions from both parties in the Congress, the Obama Administration has now revealed how it has spent over $1.7 billion on part of the Obama health law, known as the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. This plan is intended to help companies pay the cost of health care for their ...
