Arbitrary Autocracy
Fresh out of the starting gate, Obamacare is already creating the wholly predictable disastrous results when confronted by the realities of the marketplace. Companies, large and small, are faced with having to yank healthcare coverage from employees because of the law’s mandates, standards, and exorbitant costs, while insurers are being forced to drop certain coverage options and, in some cases, altogether abandon the market.
The Obama Administration’s solution: cutting deals that would allow favored and select companies to dodge the so-called reform mandates, while letting others hang in the wind. This from The New York Times:
As Obama administration officials put into place the first major wave of changes under the health care legislation, they have tried to defuse stiffening resistance — from companies like McDonald’s and some insurers — by granting dozens of waivers to maintain even minimal coverage far below the new law’s standards.
The waivers have been issued in the last several weeks as part of a broader strategic effort to stave off threats by some health insurers to abandon markets, drop out of the business altogether or refuse to sell certain policies.
Among those that administration officials hoped to mollify with waivers were some big insurers, some smaller employers and McDonald’s, which went so far as to warn that the regulations could force it to strip workers of existing coverage.
At a time when the midterm elections are looming and Republicans have been vocal in campaigning against the law, reaction to the rollout has been closely watched.
To date, the administration has given about 30 insurers, employers and union plans, responsible for covering about one million people, one-year waivers on the new rules that phase out annual limits on coverage for limited-benefit plans, also known as “mini-meds.” Applicants said their premiums would increase significantly, in some cases doubling or more.
Wonderful. How’s that hope and change working out for you?
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