When he voted against the federal health care overhaul, passed along partisan lines just a few short months ago, LV Congressman Charlie Dent warned it was going to cost all of us. According to an unnamed Northampton County bean-counter, it may soon be affecting your county tax bill. Here's how.Northampton County is self-insured. Its medical plan is administered by Capital Blue Cross, but all employee claims are paid from the county till. That means your tax dollars pay the bills, and those bills are going up for two reasons.
First, thanks to the overhaul, the County must now pay the medical, dental and even some eyecare claims of all family members under age 26. There is no requirement that they continue to live with their parents or be dependents. The County must pay all of these expenses at no additional cost to County workers.
Second, there currently is a $12,500 annual limit on what the County will pay for retirees before insisting on other types of insurance. Thanks to Pelosicare, that cap has been lifted and the County must pay it all.
"Washington isn't sending us any money to pay the bills. They're just playing Santa Claus," remarked this County official, who estimates this will cost us several hundred thousand dollars. And as he concludes, "Every single dollar must be paid by the taxpayer, one way or the other."
28 comments:
Sounds like Doran Hammond, as he is always crying about money except when it goes to his raises and pension account.
What bullshit, cite the specific codes and regulations.
The fact is this is a smokescreen to cover the terrible decision to dump Colonial healthcare as the health Administrator and bring in Blue Cross. It was a political payback by Stoffa and now it is costing us big time.
Blue Cross used a low-ball number to get the contract and is now milking the County.
So much for intelligent competent government. Try the truth for a change.
Dr. Answer
First, thanks to the overhaul, the County must now pay the medical, dental and even some eyecare claims of all family members. I am suggesting for taking pure acai fot good health.
hows about the county just pay health benefits more in line with the private sector?
Close down the bloodsucking insurance companies! NOW!
Like nearly everything that came out of the federal government since the new deal, the moronic bureaucrats have no clue as to the unintended consequences of their attempts to make the world "fair" including health care.
Hunker down, the NorCO impact on taxes is only the beginning.
Thanks, Barry and Nancy
No kidding it is going to cost more. More people are covered. This is a GOOD thing.
Rep. Dent would rather have lower taxes than healthy people. Helluva job, Chuck.
Being healthy requires a nitwit poster to put "fair" in quotes. Nitwit, do you believe you have a greater right to health than someone else?
I can see why it's in quotation marks. It's not fair at all. It's just going to cost more.
I see no reason why county taxpayers should pay the health costs of the 25 year-old family members of county workers who do not live with their parents and are not dependents.
Congressman Dent warned about these unfunded mandates and hasbeen proven correct. As bad as this is for the County, it is going to be felt even more by small business owners tryingto stay alive in a bad economy. Do you think this makes them want to go out and hire more people?
This is just one more reason why we're going from recession into depression.
Because you wouldn't want to possibly make sure your child's health care is covered if he or she is a grad student or just unable to find a job with decent benefits. How selfish! How dare they take a few dollars from ME! It's just unfair!
We should have universal coverage but bellyachers like you would never permit tax increases to cover anything let alone something that would us all directly or indirectly.
Next time someone's 22 year old kid gets leukemia or something and has no coverage, I'll tell them to look for Charlie Dent. He thinks you should quit your sniveling and pick your sorry self up by your bootstraps. Now go die already. You are costing us anyway just not via taxes - via inflated rates.
"Unfunded mandates"
No shit they are unfunded. That is the point - to get uninsured insured so they stop escalating rates to pay for their uncovered and serious healthcare conditions.
Gee, thanks for helping ruin the economy. but we'll all be insured.
Please. As if the economy wasn't ruined 2 years ago. We are merely coming up to speed with every other civilized nation in the world. You want to continue to lag and have the economy destroyed by not doing anything? What we need is a rethinking of what we spend money on. Perhaps a 1% decrease in the defense budget and ending the ludicrous wars in the Middle East that Charlie Dent so passionately favors?
The simple reality is that everything Obama has touched, from stimulus to health care overhaul, has trned to shit. How he could impose a plan that will require higher taxes from already strapped governments is simply incredible. Abd the blatant disregard you have for ordinary folk, who are stuck with the bills, is shameful.
You think I would trust someone like you, who has already sunk us in a dfinancial morasse, with our nationaL SECURITY? Think again.
AS I have said before: if you take my money at the point of a gun, it theft, whether you use it to buy cocaine or health insurance.
Just because you ask the federal government to hold the gun for you does not make you less of a thief.
The "ordinary folk" don't have health insurance. Seems I care about them a hell of a lot more than you.
Lower Mack - I assume you live in a cabin in the woods off the grid? Otherwise, you suck at the government teat like the rest of us. Wake up and stop fooling yourself. It's called SOCIETY. One where we used to look out for each other. Now it's just everyone for themselves. Me me me. Thanks Reagan.
I sunk us in a financial morasse? Seems the Repub spin machine has brainwashed you O'Hare. I seem to recall something about large investment banks, a credit freeze, and a collapsing housing market.
And perhaps if your boy George W. Bush wasn't busy giving tax breaks and corporate welfare, we'd have more money in the coffers for "ordinary people."
But by all means, blame the people. It keeps the heat off of your Republican cronies like Chuck Dent.
No question that the R policies in the 8 years before Obama led to many financial problems and may be the cause of our recession. I do not dispute that. But everything Obama has done has just made things worse. He rushes to get a completely ineffective stim package, followed by a disastrous health care overhaul that will kill the people who furnish most people with jobs - small business.
He really has not looked out for ordinary people and has refused to listen to people from the right before deciding on a policy.
Just yesterday, I pointed out how his foreclosure program, which was supposed to solve our crisis, has been a disaster. Northampton County is about to set a record in sheriff sales.
So it's time to stop the nonsense. It's time to stop enslaving the private sector to pay for the public sector's perks, too.
Lets be honest here. You can't blame Obama for the disasters in Northampton County. John Stoffa has created a climate of disaster that has the County in debt and home foreclosures on the increase.
Dr Answer is nuts!
Poor Stoffa...gets blamed for everything...did he cause that damn oil spill as well ? Iknew it....
Wow, seems most people don't understand economics at all. What a shame. No wonder we are headed for a depression, "but at least we'll have health care". Money always comes from somewhere, and taxpayers who don't have jobs can't pay. Higher taxes seems like such a simple solution, but you can't continue to bleed the citizenry and expect good things to happen.
Quite frankly, I am tired of paying for everyone else, especially when the roads on which I travel to work are lined with potholes and government workers standing around. The government was never supposed to be a santa claus program, but now that's all we seem to be.
Hi Bernie.... I found this bit of news a little surprising. I am a county employee with a child who is 21 and lives at home. I was told by the county that they will not cover my son under my healthcare. I was told they do not have to, that the PA law doesn't require them to. I am just curious now as to whether I'm being told the truth now.
Hi county worker,
My information comes from a very high-ranking county official so I know what I am telling you is accurate. It may not have kicked in yet, but will be very soon. I will double check for you.
County worker, Stoffa has flaunted the law since he took office, why would he start now?
It's time for ALL government employees to experience meaningful co-pay. That means, the police, the fire departments and the teachers.
All municipal and government employees should have the same benefits, or rather should share in the cost of the benefits, as has been typical with business employees for over 20 years.
Co-pay all the way!
I'm a business official and I am tired of having to give out pensions. My God, just the other day I told my friend while riding in his Mercedes that it was highway robbery. Later on the golf course another business official agreed with me.
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