Under the previous system, major corporations were subsidized by the government to provide prescription drug coverage to their employees. At the same time, corporations could claim on their tax returns that it was they — not the taxpayers — who paid for the drug coverage, and could write the expense off as a tax deduction.

Health care reform cuts out that fat. The corporations still get taxpayer money to help pay for their employees’ drug coverage, but they can no longer continue the fiction that they’re using their own money to do it.