Harvard Liberals and the Obamacare Irony

Liberals working at Harvard University, who extolled the virtues of a government-run, taxpayer-supported health care system, are now reaping the harvest. And they don’t like it. Being required by law to obtain health insurance and also deal with higher premiums and decreased benefits associated with “affordable” care isn’t so cool after all.

Harvard faculty: Yes to Obamacare higher costs for you, no to Obamacare higher costs for us http://t.co/NX8wN7jBod @instapundit

— Craig Colgan (@ccwriter) January 5, 2015

From the New York Times:

For years, Harvard’s experts on health economics and policy have advised presidents and Congress on how to provide health benefits to the nation at a reasonable cost. But those remedies will now be applied to the Harvard faculty, and the professors are in an uproar.

Members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the heart of the 378-year-old university, voted overwhelmingly in November to oppose changes that would require them and thousands of other Harvard employees to pay more for health care. The university says the increases are in part a result of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, which many Harvard professors championed.

Irony, thy name is liberalism.

Unfortunately for @Harvard profs, karma is a pre-existing condition not covered by #Obamacare: http://t.co/5DjrOtli24

— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) January 5, 2015

The faculty vote against the rising costs of their plans came too late. Obamacare descends, and costs will rise. Harvard, like every other institution with employees, must bear the burden of a growing and intrusive central government. Some people either ignore or don’t realize that what politicians do eventually will impact their day-to-day lives. It might seem wonderful on paper to support so-called health care reform, but at the end of the day, somebody gets the bill.

Harvard professor Mary D. Lewis said the changes to the school’s health benefits program amounted to a pay cut that “will be timed to come at precisely the moment when you are sick, stressed or facing the challenges of being a new parent.”

Professor, it’s called consequences. Contrary to what some might believe, the government has no money of its own. It functions on the money we earn — the fruits of our labor.

The university is adopting standard features of most employer-sponsored health plans: Employees will now pay deductibles and a share of the costs, known as coinsurance, for hospitalization, surgery and certain advanced diagnostic tests. The plan has an annual deductible of $250 per individual and $750 for a family. For a doctor’s office visit, the charge is $20. For most other services, patients will pay 10 percent of the cost until they reach the out-of-pocket limit of $1,500 for an individual and $4,500 for a family.

Harvard’s president says the costs of the school’s benefits are growing faster than staff salaries and operating money. The professors are challenging that contention. Regardless, did these “distressed” and anxious liberals think their employer was immune or exempt from the law?

In the future, all health care reforms should be tested on Harvard "experts" before being foisted upon your family. Experimental meds too.

— Dr. Milton Wolf (@miltonwolfmd) January 5, 2015

Harvard’s new plan sounds a lot better than what’s on the exchanges. But still they complain. More bad news for the liberals: it’s going to get worse.