Huge Rise Looms for Health Care in New York City's Budget

The New York Times reports on the the cost of the special class of workers:

At last count, the city's biggest pension fund - the one for about 300,000 workers not covered by police, firefighter, teacher or school workers plans - said it had $42 billion set aside in trust for the $42.2 billion it owed. No money at all has been set aside for that same group of city employees' post-retirement health care.

Determining the correct amount will be "a tremendous undertaking," a city official said, adding that rapid changes in the overall health care environment, including the Medicare and Medicaid programs, make it extremely difficult to see what future costs will be.

No one really knows what the total health care obligation is for the 836,000 people already retired or now working for the city and state, much less who will pay for it. Neither side in the transit dispute, for example, has publicly mentioned retiree health care.

Eat your heart out Enron.What company listed on the NYSE or NASDAQ could get away with this? Maybe getting government more involved in health care wouldn't be such a good idea.Anyway,for those of you who hold long term municipal bonds of New York city do you really trust what NYC tells Moody's and Standard and Poor's to get a bond rating??? Well,do you?