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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Daily News Editorial: Worried About Your Health Care? Get Hikindcare



Worried about your health care? Get Hikindcare — generous coverage paid for entirely by the taxpayer.

Wait, you say you’re not a child of Assemblyman Dov Hikind? Poor slob. You don’t meet the eligibility requirements.

Yoni Hikind, 32, and Shmuel Hikind, 29, were luckier. They share DNA and a last name with a Brooklyn elected official.

Though Daddy Hikind couldn’t directly employ his kids — that would be against anti-nepotism rules, which, believe it or not, Albany has — Yoni landed a plum job “working” part time for one of daddy’s Assembly colleagues from Brooklyn, Peter Abbate. Shmuel landed a gig “working” part time for another Brooklyn member, Rhoda Jacobs.

The Hikind boys don’t make much — around $13,000 and $10,500 a piece — but they hit a magic threshold of 17.5 hours a week that qualifies them for health insurance on the public dime.

Very good insurance at that. A great deal for them. An atrocious deal for you.

It gets better or worse, depending on your angle. The two brothers continue to work for a Flatbush yeshiva (which doesn’t offer health insurance). Meanwhile, Pops put two other employees of the same yeshiva on his staff payroll, where their health insurance is covered.

Here’s how Hikindcare scales up: Everyone finds a way to become friends or family of an elected official. Then everyone gets a do-almost-nothing job. Then everyone gets to go to the doctor at little or no cost.

Why didn’t President Obama think of that?


(The Daily News Editorial)

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