Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the architect of Obamacare, has found a novel way to Chicago’s spending problem. A mayoral commission on how to deal with the city’s imploding financial situation suggested the idea that Rahm dump Chicago city workers on the Obamacare exchange.
The Wall Street Journal describes the panel’s suggestion.
The four-member panel issued a report this month suggesting that dumping pre-Medicare retirees onto the state’s ObamaCare exchange in 2014 could be fab for retirees and city taxpayers. Nearly 60% of retirees and 94% of those who receive subsidies would pay less for their health care on the exchange. Married retirees with dependents would save an average of $4,300.
The plan will save money for Chicago and for city employees by taxing all Americans to subsidize their future care. “Federal subsidies for Chicago retirees would amount to $44 million in 2014 and increase as more workers retire in their early to mid-50s and health costs grow.”
That can be sustained if only one city pulls this trick. But what happens when all the over indebted cities and states in America realize they can participate too? The Journal writes, “All told, state and local governments are on the hook for between $700 billion and $1.5 trillion for retiree health benefits.”
That staggering sum will soon be foisted on Americans living in cities and states that have been responsible with their funding. So while you may have thought the debt problems in Chicago and California were problems for people living there, you’re wrong. Now it’s your problem.