ObamaCare Early Retirement Fund is Broke
The healthcare law authorized the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP) through 2014 or until its funding ran out. Its early termination is a sign of its popularity — employers simply overwhelmed the program, which reimburses them for some of the cost of providing healthcare benefits to retirees and their families.
This is from The Hill. Chris Jacobs adds:
Data from HHS suggest that more than half of the money went to only 24 organizations – with the biggest recipient being the United Auto Workers union.
Sounds like they gave all the money to their friends.
This section of the law pisses me off more than any other I think.
Why should taxpayers subsidize people who get to retire in their 50s?
Why should my father, who is still working at 61, have to pay taxes to subsidize someone who is retired at 55?
Encouraging such early retirements really screws the system. You have people who collect benefits for longer, while contributing (payroll taxes) for a shorter period of time.
I agree with Chris.
USA Today had a rather scary cover story this week about the ballooning cost of public sector pensions. Public employees are retiring at age 50 or 55 and many can expect to receive pension payments nearly as large as their salary for another 30 years — probably longer than they worked in the first place.
This law just continues to unravel. Wonder where it will be by Summer.
The collapse of public sector pensions is coming, there is no question. It will make some former public employees bitter at the government – I predict, than in 15+ years, it will be painfully obvious that the people taking government jobs will be less qualified and less desirable than what people have expected in the past.
Without the guaranteed pension, there is less incentive for many people to seek public sector careers.