Unintended Consequences

Current legislation in Congress has once again caused some unintended consequences, and you and I, the citizens whom the politicos in Washington represent, are going to pay for it.

The first underestimated bill hasn’t even been passed yet, but there is pressure on from President Obama and those who back him to get the Healthcare Bill through Congress so that he can sign it into law. It has been “underestimated” in several ways, but one that wasn’t even considered concerns healthcare premiums.

There is a huge hue and cry about the increases that went into effect at the beginning of the year, especially in California. Some premiums for self-insured users, along with the increase of deductibles and co-pays, are as much as 40 percent above last year.

What did we expect? The insurers know that if the current healthcare plan passes, they will have to accept many people who were previously excluded or charged higher premiums due to pre-existing conditions or added risk. They also know that the government will not allow any markups for those conditions, so the insurance company will be paying out a lot more benefits. The only avenue open to the insurance provider is to charge higher rates now, before the legislation becomes law.

You don’t believe me? I heard Carl Rove admit just this week that the Bush-43 Administration severely underestimated the number of people who would take advantage of the Medicare Part D prescription drug provision that went into effect back in 2006. Millions more signed up for it than had been anticipated.

Why? Because employers who were then providing drug coverage for employees and retirees at tremendous cost saw it as a way out. They forced their retirees to sign up for Part D by withdrawing those benefits.

A benefit that was supposed to aid those who truly couldn’t afford their drugs was inadvertently forced upon and became the norm for everyone over age 65.

The other unintended consequence that is out there is the latest scheme to give tax breaks to companies that hire unemployed people. The recently passed Jobs Bill allows those companies that hire the unemployed to forego the 6.2 percent Social Security payments through December for any qualified hires and also gives them an additional $1,000 credit if the worker stays on the job for a full year.

In order to qualify for the credit, the new hire would have to have been unemployed for at least 60 days. That isn’t much of a qualification, but it has some drastic unanticipated side effects.

Those people who have been unemployed for so long that they took either lower paying jobs or took jobs that are Part-time or conditional/seasonal, are in the crosshairs, because they will not qualify for the employer credit under the Jobs Bill. That puts them at a big disadvantage when seeking full-time, higher paid employment.

The government is putting those who have not gone to work at all, possibly because they find no incentive to put in work hours, ahead of the people who have struggled to make ends meet on lesser pay. Those in the qualified category now have a full two years of benefits in the form of unemployment payments and food stamps, plus other assistance in some cases.

Let me get this straight… The guy or gal who sucks it up and goes to work for less pay in order to keep their dignity is now in line behind the slackers who are, in some instances, drawing as much as $40,000 per year plus food stamps for staying at home. (I won’t tell you exactly how they do that, because I don’t want to encourage even more of that kind of behavior)

I know that there are lots of people among the unemployed who are genuinely trying to get work, and if you are one of those, I don’t intend to blame or shame you. I’m only pointing out the odds of upgrading from a low paying temporary job to one that is equal to the pay and benefits you lost. You have to admit that the credit available to employers places a handicap on some who don’t deserve it.

I thought it was bad enough when congress extended the unemployment benefits to make the United States the only country in the world that pays for a full two years. The Jobs Bill is even a worse piece of legislation in my opinion.

Now maybe we’ll be fortunate enough that those bloodsuckers that haven’t even tried to find work will continue to sit at home and collect their unemployment. After all, they aren’t the ones who benefit from the tax credits provided by the Jobs Bill.