Harvard Profs Loved Obamacare But Say Changes to Their Own Plans Are Like 'Taxing the Sick'
The Harvard University faculty is among the most pro-Obamacare cohort in the country; many of Harvard's top professors even served as advisors to the president and Congress, helping to craft and approve the Affordable Care Act.
But much like a doctor who refuses to take the medicine he prescribes to others, Harvard elites seem to resent changes to their own health plans—changes at least tangentially related to the ACA, according to The New York Times:
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.
The faculty vote came too late to stop the cost increases from taking effect this month, and the anger on campus remains focused on questions that are agitating many workplaces: How should the burden of health costs be shared by employers and employees? If employees have to bear more of the cost, will they skimp on medically necessary care, curtail the use of less valuable services, or both?
"Harvard is a microcosm of what's happening in health care in the country," said David M. Cutler, a health economist at the university who was an adviser to President Obama's 2008 campaign. But only up to a point: Professors at Harvard have until now generally avoided the higher expenses that other employers have been passing on to employees. That makes the outrage among the faculty remarkable, Mr. Cutler said, because "Harvard was and remains a very generous employer."
The story is filled with unintentionally hilarious quotes from professors consumed by grief and rage that they will be expected to pay higher out-of-pocket medical costs:
"It's equivalent to taxing the sick," Professor Green said. "I don't think there's any government in the world that would tax the sick." …
"It seems that Harvard is trying to save money by shifting costs to sick people," said Mary C. Waters, a professor of sociology. "I don't understand why a university with Harvard's incredible resources would do this. What is the crisis?"
I'm of course sympathetic to people whose healthcare costs have been negatively impacted by federal intervention. Still, most Harvard professors are likely in better shape to cope with such changes than the average person. They could even ask their colleagues to talk to national policymakers about fixing things. Most of the rest of us lack a direct line to the White House.
Or as Breitbart's John Joel Pollak astutely put it, "Unfortunately for Harvard profs, karma is a pre-existing condition not covered by Obamacare."
