Monday, January 5, 2015

Harvard Professors are in an Uproar that Healthcare Advice They Gave is being Applied to Them

NYT reports:

 For years, Harvard’s experts on health economics and policy have advised presidents and Congress on how to provide health benefits to the nation at a reasonable cost. But those remedies will now be applied to the Harvard faculty, and the professors are in an uproar.

Members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the heart of the 378-year-old university, voted overwhelmingly in November to oppose changes that would require them and thousands of other Harvard employees to pay more for health care. The university says the increases are in part a result of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, which many Harvard professors championed.

Read the rest here.

14 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. very funny...."I never thought for a minute it would apply to us!!!!"

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  2. Reading about this made my whole day. Truly beautiful.

    Now, if we could only force the public sector into this God-awful law, they'd repeal it overnight.

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  3. "The plan has an annual deductible of $250 per individual and $750 for a family. For a doctor’s office visit, the charge is $20. For most other services, patients will pay 10 percent of the cost until they reach the out-of-pocket limit of $1,500 for an individual and $4,500 for a family".

    What are these boobs complaining about? My employer-provided insurance (which I actually think is pretty good) has a deductible of $3000 per year and is 80/20 after that.

    The out-of-pocket maximum each year? $11,000.

    My employer gives me $1500 toward the deductible (deposited into a HSA), and most years I can earn an additional amount by meeting certain "wellness" criteria.

    The folks at Harvard have nothing to complain about.

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    Replies
    1. I wonder what percentage of households can fund a $11,000 maximum payment let alone a deductible $3,000?

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    2. Well, I never said I had outstanding insurance, just better than what I hear from others.

      The company I work for gives me $1500, which is half of the deductible. This year, for example, I received an additional $500 for meeting specific "wellness" criteria. So, for me, 2/3 of the deductible is already covered. Premiums for me and my family run about $168 a month. My employer offers more expensive plans that provide greater coverage and lower out-of-pocket amounts, but I'd rather put the difference between the higher priced plans and what I use into my HSA, rather than in the hands of an insurance company whose services I may or may not use.

      As far as the $11,000 out-of-pocket maximum....we hit that once about four years ago. Let's just say things were pretty tight considering I only make about $60k a year.

      A number of years ago, when I worked for a different company, I had really, really good insurance. $10 co-pays, $50 to go to the ER. Monthly premium? $28...for a family of four (at the time).

      The whole system is screwed up, no question. I just have to wonder what the people at Harvard are complaining about. Sounds like their deal is far better than what I get (and I'm fine with what I have).

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  4. BUT.... BUT.... We are the elite!.... Aren't we?

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  5. I'll tell you, the guy who has made a very good living being a expert in Virgil's poetry should consider himself very lucky to have an employer that is willing to way overpay him for his skills and knowledge. These largely unemployable in their area of expertise outside of academia loons need to count their blessings and STFU.

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  6. My peers who are still in the military (I'm ex-military) bitch incessantly about the 'cuts' they're seeing. They're the same people who - using tea party language - talk about needed spending cuts...but never do they see their own existence as being part of the problem. In fact, they frequently refer to themselves as part of the "productive" class.

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    Replies
    1. Well, they are "producing" something: Misery for brown people all around the globe.

      :)

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  7. @Anonymous

    (So many people here with that same name. I wonder if they are related?)

    You are so right. Most of these professors are all but unemployable outside the "bubble". They have jobs only because the educational-media-government-banking complex manages to pull the wool over the eyes of enough inexperienced, naive, young people (and their families) to keep the scam going.

    Otherwise most would be on the unemployment line or in a career that involves welcoming people to Walmart.

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