-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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This bill aimed for the PBMs but hit employers and consumers instead and did nothing to drug manufacturers. The legislature is clueless and will lament the coming increase in the price of health coverage and the continuing stream of businesses leaving Illinois or refusing to offer health coverage. The tsunami of new, extraordinarily expensive drug treatments will put every employer at risk of substantial expense—this bill removes effective strategies for pharmacy cost management. ERISA employers will sue, the trade union welfare plans have been exempted, and the remaining insured and governmental employees will see higher premiums and less wage growth.