Pity poor Harvard

The New York Times created a sensation this week with a story about how employees at Harvard, the incubator for Obamacare, finally got the same letter that a lot of us got, explaining that because of new Obamacare benefits, they would have to start paying more.

Members of the Art & Sciences faculty voted in a landslide to reject the changes, but the vote came too late, and they now face an annual deductible of $250, and a $20 co-pay for an office visit.

I know, you’re having trouble holding back the tears, aren’t you? Professors at a university with an endowment of $32.3 billion having to endure a co-pay.

Of course, Obamacare critics reveled in the schadenfreude.

“Pity party thrown for Harvard faculty who loved Obamacare until it hit them,” said one conservative website.

It even came up at the White House briefing, “Isn’t it a little hypocritical that some of the president’s supporters at Harvard are saying, ‘This is a great deal for America, but when I have to pay more, it’s terrible’?”

But here’s the really weird thing about this latest Obamacare skirmish: The changes at Harvard, requiring a deductible and a co-pay, are precisely what Obamacare critics have been demanding as a way to hold down costs.

So why are conservatives scolding Harvard for finally ending the free lunch? It’s the liberals and Socialists who should be scolding Harvard for daring to impose a charge on people at the very moment they’re sick, or frankly, for charging anything at all. Heck, with an endowment of $32.3 billion, I’m surprised Harvard has the gall to charge tuition.