From Boeing spokeswoman Karen Forte:
If you would’ve asked me if we would’ve made these changes without the enactment of the law, I would’ve said yes.
The subject is the healthcare reform law, and whether Boeing is making changes to its health plan because of the law’s new regulations. The answer is no. Contrary to what they said in a letter to employees, they were planning to make them anyway.
Once again with feeling: healthcare reform is a wonderful excuse for companies to use when they decide to pare back benefits. It’s also a wonderful talking point for conservatives to haul out whenever anything changes in the healthcare industry. There’s just one thing: the claims are almost never true. Either the changes aren’t actually happening in the first place or they’re changes that would have happened anyway.
You should expect to continue hearing a tidal wave of claims that ACA is damaging access to healthcare in one way or another. About 1% of the time there will be something to it. The other 99% of the time it will quickly turn out to be hooey, but you won’t find out about that on the front page. You’ll find out about it, at best, on page A17. Caveat emptor.
