Health care reform? Really, is this “change” any better? I don’t think so.

The new health-care law is going to change how the government subsidizes prescription drug coverage for corporations. Boeing, as an example, receives a tax break as an incentive to provide prescription coverage. When Congress approved the Medicare prescription program in 2003, it included government incentives for employers to provide drug benefits to retirees. Under that law, companies could deduct the entire amount they spent on the drug benefits from their taxable income. The White House defends the tax-law changes saying the original law that allowed subsidies was a loophole that needs to be closed. If this goes through and the tax break is repealed, thousands of corporate retirees will lose their prescription-medical coverage and this could take effective as early as 2011!

Corporate retirees need to mobilize and make their collective voice heard on this issue otherwise thousands of individuals and families who are presently receiving coverage will be left without prescription drug coverage.

C.L. Twitchell