A small piece of the new health reform law

On June 1st another piece of the new health reform law will be phased in—the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program. The program will subsidize some $5 billion to employers in order for them to help pay for some of their retired workers within the 55-64 age group who are not yet eligible for Medicare. Personally, I don't see too much good coming from the program.
The program is authorized to continue up to 2014, but many say the money will most likely run out within 18-24 months--half the allotted time. That's all well and good, but only about 31% of businesses offer retiree coverage, and the program doesn't allow any new programs to receive any money until a new plan year begins, which is usually January 1st. Which means about 1/3 of the time estimated for the money to last will have been lost to many retirees. For a plan to be eligible it must have one participant that generates between $15,000 and $90,000 of health claims per year, and save the retiree money when managing any chronic diseases.
With the drawbacks for many companies to offer retiree coverage, mainly the high possibility that they will lose funding rather quickly, I don't see many eager to jump on the bandwagon. In my opinion, the program will greatly benefit businesses with retiree coverage plans already in place for a short amount of time, and it won't greatly impact the percentage of businesses who offer retiree coverage. It’s a good-hearted effort, but it's really just a nice reward for those large companies who are still able to offer such retiree benefits to their older employees.