BIG TWO CARRIERS?CEOS TOLD TO EXPLAIN FEARS OF HEALTH COST INCREASES

摘要

Leading members of the House Commerce Committee asked AT&T and Verizon to explain their claims that the new health-care law will increase the telephone companies' costs. In letters to the CEOs of the telcos and two other companies, Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Oversight Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said the subcommittee plans a hearing on the matter April 21. "We request your personal testimony at this hearing," they told Randall Stephenson, AT&T抯 CEO, and Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon抯. AT&T has said it will take a charge of $1 billion in the first quarter because the new law changes the tax treatment of the Medicare Part D subsidy. A Verizon executive told employees in an e-mail that the new law meant the company's costs would increase "in the short term." The executive said changes related to the Part D subsidy "will make it less valuable to employers, like Verizon, and as a result, may have significant implications for both retirees and employers."