The background is this. Harvard has decided that it will make its professors and staff pay more toward their own healthcare because of the changes Obamacare has caused. Not only did many of these same professors advocate for Obamacare, but some even helped draft it. Harvard economist David Cutler, for example, advised Obama on the law in 2008. He now notes that while Harvard remains a very generous employer, the school’s professorial ranks have so far avoided being asked to pick up the added costs Obamacare has imposed... until now.
Others are less sanguine about this.
Harvard Professor of classics, specifically Virgil, Richard Thomas slammed the higher fees he will be paying, calling them “deplorable, deeply regressive, a sign of the corporatization of the university.”
Wow. Ok, let’s start with that. For a highly paid Ivy League college professor to whine about higher costs being “regressive” is delusional. Costs are regressive when they are imposed on poor and middle class people, not people earning six figures and more. Did old Dick not realize when he and his rich friends pimped for this that the heaviest burden would fall on the middle class? Does this 1%er not realize that the rest of us have no sympathy for the tiny percentage increase he needs to bear when the rest of us have been ordered to pony up 20% of our incomes to satisfy his need to feel generous? A-hole.
As for the corporatization of the university, what did old Dick expect? His buddy Obama created a law that handed vast amounts of power to health insurance companies. In so doing, it slaughtered the freedoms of consumers, of doctors, and of hospitals. Should we really feel bad that Harvard has decided to act “more corporate” by passing along costs that Dick and his buds forced onto Harvard and the rest of the nation’s employers?
Mary “Dirty Froggy” Lewis, a professor of French history, has taken the lead against the cost increases, calling them “a salary reduction.” Le shock! Did she not understand that would be the effect when she and her buds imposed this law on the rest of working America?
She goes further too, noting that “this pay cut will be timed to come at precisely the moment when you are sick, stressed or facing the challenges of being a new parent.” Uh, yeah. Was this unclear when you passed this? This law results in a massive monthly pay cut and then, to protect the vested corporate interests, forces you to pony up cold hard cash to meet your deductibles and out of pocket limits right at the point where you get sick. This shouldn’t surprise anyone, and it absolutely shouldn’t outrage the people who pimped for this.
Mary “Still, But Not Deep” Waters, a professor of sociology... whatever that really is, whined: “It seems that Harvard is trying to save money by shifting costs to sick people,” and “I don’t understand why a university with Harvard’s incredible resources would do this. What is the crisis?”
Wrong actually. The law sought to save money by shifting costs onto healthy people who wouldn’t otherwise buy insurance. It only whacks sick people because they are the ones trying to use this largely worthless coverage. As for the resources, Shallow Mary clearly doesn’t understand that when you impose a cost on something like a corporation, it tries to pass that on. Just as Mary would never accept a pay cut to let Harvard increase the salaries of the cleaning staff, Harvard will not take a pay cut just because Mary got a law passed to give her more health benefits.
As for the “what is the crisis” question, shouldn’t we all be asking that? Only 15% of Americans lacked health insurance, and every one of them still had a right to seek treatment. So where was the crisis? Moreover, with only 6.3 million people signing up out of 49 million, it’s pretty clear there never was a crisis. So Mary... STFU.
Ultimately, what’s really hilarious about this is the shock that these nasty changes they imposed on the rest of us 310 million saps are only intolerable now that they are applying to our elite brethren, who assumed they were immune from the consequences of their actions.
Kind of makes you smile, doesn’t it?
