Retirees Health Care

Welcome to ObamaCare:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel expects to save $18 million next year by starting a three-year phaseout of city-subsidized health insurance for most retired City Hall workers.
  
  The administration said Tuesday that the previously announced phaseout will start as planned Jan. 1, even though the move is being challenged in court.
  
  The savings would chip away at a projected budget shortfall of $339 million. Emanuel, who is scheduled to deliver his budget address Oct. 23, is expected to announce a series of cost-saving measures. He also hasn't ruled out increasing taxes and fees.
  
  Although retired city workers will see no increase in copays and deductibles, they will have to come up with more money to cover the cost of the insurance.

You won't be keeping your doctor either, regardless of what Obama promised. And those "average savings" of $2,400 a year? Some folks in California are finding their premiums going up by $10,000 a year:

• Cindy Vinson and Tom Waschura are big believers in the Affordable Care Act. They vote independent and are proud to say they helped elect and re-elect President Barack Obama.
  
  Yet, like many other Bay Area residents who pay for their own medical insurance, they were floored last week when they opened their bills: Their policies were being replaced with pricier plans that conform to all the requirements of the new health care law.
  
  Vinson, of San Jose, will pay $1,800 more a year for an individual policy, while Waschura, of Portola Valley, will cough up almost $10,000 more for insurance for his family of four.

Any guesses on who's to blame for a lot of this? Any mirrors around?

• Labor unions are among the key institutions responsible for the passage of Obamacare. They spent tons of money electing Democrats to Congress in 2006 and 2008, and fought hard to push the health law through the legislature in 2009 and 2010. But now, unions are waking up to the fact that Obamacare is heavily disruptive to the health benefits of their members.
  
  Last Thursday, representatives of three of the nation’s largest unions fired off a letter to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, warning that Obamacare would “shatter not only our hard-earned health benefits, but destroy the foundation of the 40 hour work week that is the backbone of the American middle class.”

So republicans, who have been telling the truth about the disastrous train wreck that is ObamaCare, are actually fighting to delay the implementation of something that will harm, even destroy, union workers benefits? The world is upside-down.