You know those great sales stores offer — the ones that are like buy one, get three free? Usually, they come with a fine-print disclosure, “While supplies last.”
Well, it looks like the feds should have put a bigger “While supplies last” label on the early retiree reinsurance fund, because new numbers from the Employee Benefit Research Institute show the $5 billion program — designed under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to help employers maintain health benefits for early retirees — likely will be exhausted by 2012. “But wait!” you might say. “The program isn’t due to terminate until 2014!”
