Obamacare to The Rescue in Detroit!

Detroit Looks to Health Law to Ease Costs

By MONICA DAVEY and ABBY GOODNOUGH

Published: July 28, 2013 21 Comments

As Detroit enters the federal bankruptcy process, the city is proposing a controversial plan for paring some of the $5.7 billion it owes in retiree health costs: pushing many of those too young to qualify for Medicare out of city-run coverage and into the new insurance markets that will soon be operating under the Obama health care law.

Detroit wants insurance exchanges to cover retirees like Thomas Berry, a former police officer.

“There’s fear and panic,” said Michael Underwood, an ailing Chicago Police Department retiree.

officials say the plan would be part of a broader effort to save Detroit tens of millions of dollars in health costs each year, a major element in a restructuring package that must be approved by a bankruptcy judge. It is being watched closely by municipal leaders around the nation, many of whom complain of mounting, unsustainable prices for the health care promised to retired city workers. 

Oh this ought to be good. I can't wait to see the reaction of the Public Service Workers Unions. Talk about the chickens coming home to roost, the unions were (and I'm serious about the past tense) some of President Obama's biggest supporters, but let's see how that support holds up when the retirees get tossed in to the not yet functioning state exchanges. There are other financially troubled cities that are considering doing the same thing. The cities are pushing to get retirees into the plan and the Administration is delaying it. The picture is getting uglier by the minute.