Here's a reasonable summary of the trumped-up numbers that some corporations will claim the new healthcare reform law will cost them:
http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2010...-the-hangover/
Note that the hit to companies who take this Medicare Part D subsidy is spread out over the lifetime of its current and future retirees -- decades. But, with asset-based accounting, the cost has to be added up immediately. Imagine if you were told that your broadband bill was going up by $5-10/month a few years from now, then declaring you have a $5-10k loss today and you had to make major changes in how you spend money. That's roughly equivalent to what's going on here. Insight into what the "real" costs will be like 10-20+ years down the line is poor, but that doesn't stop beancounters from recalibrating the asset values based on what they know.
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