[mlmpetert]

I don’t think this is a loophole or a planned thing. I think this was just a huge oversight by the previous Chair of the House Oversight Committee, Henry Waxman. I thought they had requested this info before the health reform vote, but I was wrong it was after. The reform bills passage was on March 21st. On March 25th and 26th some large companies said it would be far too expensive to provide prescription drug coverage to retired employees. Waxman viewed it as a shot at the Democrats and added embarrassment to an unpopular bill and ordered the companies to submit their findings to a him by April 21st as a scolding. Then sometime before the hearing everything was abruptly canceled.


http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Democrats-threaten-companies-hit-hard-by-health-care-bill-89347127.html


So here is a excellent piece from a slightly biased website I stumbled on representing the Party for Socialism and Liberation (honestly they sum up the facts really nicely):

U.S. Congress: nothing but a talk shop
In response, the congressional House Energy and Commerce Committee, headed up by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) demanded that the big corporations turn over their confidential memos and summoned top executives for hearings on the matter.
But once 1,100 pages of memos from four major corporations were submitted, the congressional committee abruptly canceled the hearings and released a memo letting them off the hook.

Why did they do this? Once again, the power of the corporations overwhelmed their lackeys in Congress. The bold move of dumping health care insurance for millions of workers silenced the elected officials, who once again yielded their power to the almighty capitalists. Information getting out about such a brazen corporate plot risked the potential of an outpouring of anger by the people.

Here are some of the facts that these documents revealed:

AT&T produced a PowerPoint presentation entitled "Medical Cost Versus No Coverage Penalty" that promoted the concept of "pay not play." It demonstrated how their costs would fall from $2.4 billion to $600 million if they pay government penalties instead of providing coverage.

A document produced for Verizon, the giant telecommunications company, stated, "Even though the proposed assessment on companies that do not provide health care are material, they are modest when compared to the average cost of health care" and "employers may consider exiting the health care market and send employees to the Exchanges."

In an internal memo from Kenneth Huhn, vice president of labor relations at John Deere, Huhn urged his company to look at the alternative to providing health benefits, which in his words "would amount to denying coverage and just paying the penalty" and that he was sure he already had the ability to make this change under the company’s current labor agreement.

Internal documents also show that the giant anti-union Caterpillar Corporation felt that the penalty option deserved "serious consideration."

Straddled by health care costs won by workers through years of struggle and sacrifice the bosses now see a chance to attack those benefits, using the new health care bill as an excuse

http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=14026&news_iv_ctrl=1261