Monday, October 31, 2011

Pelosi Advises Employers to “Emancipate” Themselves from Coverage

In an interview with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo on Friday afternoon, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked about the ominous headlines surrounding Obamacare – the law’s many waivers to union plans, the recent CLASS Act debacle, and the survey from McKinsey (among MANY others) indicating employers will drop insurance coverage.  Pelosi responded by saying those headlines reflect only one side of the story, and that “on the other side, the way we see it is an innovative prevention-oriented way for businesses to be emancipated from health care costs because they have a way out or whatever works for them.”  (Exchange is at about 7:00 of the video).

Last February, then-Speaker Pelosi promised that the law “will create 4 million jobs – 400,000 jobs almost immediately.”  Apparently the former Speaker believes businesses should create these jobs by “emancipating” nearly 170 million workers and their families from their existing employer-based coverage.  While that would reduce business’ health care expenses, it would NOT “emancipate” the federal budget, raising spending on Obamacare insurance subsidies, and thus the deficit, by trillions.

In that context, it’s particularly ironic that Speaker Pelosi’s interview with CNBC was focused on deficit reduction and the supercommittee recommendations – because her suggestion would not only “emancipate” individuals from the coverage they have and like now, it would also shackle the federal budget will trillions of dollars of obligations for decades to come.