Koch Industries has been at the helm of all opposition and lies around the Affordable Care Act. Koch Industries pushed back against the claims in Jane Mayer's article with a fact-check on their positions. One section, entitled "Government-Run Healthcare", states their position:
Innovation drives our country – and in the healthcare field it brings us better treatments, improved procedures and cures for life-threatening diseases. Government takeover of healthcare may stymie innovation, affect medical research negatively and reduce the reimbursements our leading research institutions receive.
Of course, the Affordable Care Act is not government-run healthcare, but the Kochs have been the largest moneybags behind that particular impression. So we get it, right? The Kochs believe insurance companies should discriminate and do whatever they want to do to maximize profits on the backs of Americans' health. You'd think that would mean they'd reject any benefit of the Affordable Care Act.
You'd think. Today, Wonk Room reports this:
Today, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the “first round of applicants accepted into the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program,” a $5 billion program established by the new health care law to help employers and states “maintain coverage for early retirees age 55 and older who are not yet eligible for Medicare.” According to the agency, “nearly 2,000 employers, representing large and small businesses, State and local governments, educational institutions, non-profits, and unions” applied and have been accepted into the program and “will begin to receive reimbursements for employee claims this fall.”
Ironically, one of those employers is the oil, chemicals, and manufacturing conglomerate Koch Industries, which as Lee Fang has reported, has also spent millions of dollars opposing reform:
They hate it until they love it. Whatevs.