Health Care Waivers Now At 1,471

“The waivers, however, only apply to one provision of the law and Health and Human Services announced in June that they were ending the program. Companies have until September 22 to file their application for a waiver of the health care law’s $750,000 minimum annual-benefit payout requirement.”
So all the fuss is about waivers for one single provision of the bill that is already being ended.
And still you try to make a big deal out of it – and leave this information to the last paragraph of the article?
You’d be better off trying to report news accurately rather than always aiming for sensationalism.
Who knows, the Republican right might even pick up on crap like this and try to pretend its world shaking corruption of some kind – oh, they already are doing that? You wouldn’t be encouraging them would you?

“The “everyone” obviously doesn’t count all the people the Affordable Care Act has already expanded coverage to include.”
Posted by: Skip | Jul 15, 2011 6:03:10 PM
Wow, Skip, that would be an AMAZING accomplishment considering thousands of regulations are still being drafted and the earliest ANY provisions take effect is January 1, 2013.
The coverage for low-cost preventative care of Medicaid patients doesn’t kick in until January 1, 2013 and the prohibition of denying coverage for pre-existing conditions doesn’t kick in until January 1, 2014.

Posted by: Skip | Jul 15, 2011 9:31:07 PM
I stand corrected. Many insurance companies are implementing that particular provision early. It’s actually until age 26. But insurance companies are just passing on the cost to parents and stockholders.
From CNN/Money: “Parents will face a 0.7% increase in insurance premiums, across the board, for adding dependents to their plans, according to HHS. That will rise by an additional 1% in 2012 and in 2013. “[E]ither … stockholders or consumers” will shoulder that extra cost, HHS said in its report.”
Sadly, this provision wouldn’t have even been necessary if the job market wasn’t such a disaster. Just a few years ago, college grads were employed and had their own health insurance well before age 26. Now they can’t find work even with bachelor’s or master’s degrees.
I just talked to one grad the other day with $200,000 (!) in student loans, living with his parents since graduating a little over a year ago, with no job prospects in the near future. His monthly loan payments are higher than most people’s mortgages. He’s on his parents’ healthcare plan, true, but healthcare is the least of his worries at the moment. He might not recover financially for 10-15 years or longer.

We have all been handed over to the insurance companies and the fees for medical service are set by the government.
Providers like Mayo Clinic in Arizona are now no longer taking Medicare patients. We have gotten to a point where one can have health insurance and no health care.
A voucher system would have been a much better solution – no 20% overhead to insurance companies.

Posted by: assumptions | Jul 16, 2011 3:42:04 AM
From the Mayo Clinic:
“Some recent media reports have inaccurately stated that Mayo Clinic in Arizona is no longer seeing any Medicare patients. This is not true.
“Rather, a five-physician Mayo Clinic Arizona family practice clinic in Glendale, Ariz., has opted out of Medicare as part of a Mayo Clinic time-limited trial that will be reviewed at its conclusion. This means that Medicare will no longer reimburse Mayo Clinic for primary care services at this specific primary care facility, not at Mayo Clinic in Arizona overall. This affects only primary care office visits for the five Mayo family practice physicians at this site. Specialty care, laboratory services, imaging studies and ancillary services at Mayo Clinic are still covered by Medicare.”

Funny AARP pushed and still pushing for Obamacare yet they are one of the first ones given a waiver. All Americans need a waiver from this new tax (Obama said over and over this wasn’t a tax remember, now he says it’s a tax) and the largest take over of our freedoms ever. Even Dems are starting to see how bad this law is, hopefully the Supreme Court will strike down this unlawful mandate soon.

Interesting blog that lets us know about the latest in health. Obama promised to improve health care but so far remains in debt with millions of people expected to comply with…

Mr. Obama is fighting hard to raise revenue through taxes because he can’t pay for O’care without it. Seems pretty simple to me.

Not everyone under the age of 26 is covered by Obamacare. I served 20 years in the military and my 23 daughter is not covered. Not sure why there are so many people scrambling to get the “great” coverage I have anyhow. It’s very difficult to find providers who will take Tricare in my area because they pay so little, can’t imagine what will happen once everyone gets on to a government plan. These government type plans pay around 60% of what they should, so the providers are forced to pass on the charges to everyone else. Not really fair. Then the politicians point the fingers at the providers as if they are overcharging.

Once again, Mary Bruce uses sensationalism in her headline and story where a more professional journalist would state the facts first, not leave the meat of the story until the last paragraph.

I find the photo accompanying this article very telling. Isn’t the Citizens for Prosperity an organization founded by the Koch brothers? Aren’t they billionaires who have pushed to weaken regulations of all kinds, including pollution controls.
Can we honestly trust billionaires to be looking out for the best interests of the average American?

Some states also are protesting that the legislation’s efforts to set minimum standards for health insurance coverage across the country will “reward” low-performing states, while penalizing others that have already expanded their eligibility for Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor that is the nation’s largest health insurance program, covering 60 million low-income or disabled Americans.

DANNY: “So all the fuss is about waivers for one single provision of the bill that is already being ended. And still you try to make a big deal out of it – and leave this information to the last paragraph of the article?”
If you run the risk of losing your health insurance or your job due to the burdens imposed by Obamacare, this is indeed a big deal. Further, the provision was a big enough deal for your Obama to create waivers for, wasn’t it now?
Regardless of their obvious necessity, they’re ending Obamacare waivers because they can’t explain why they granted them to some and why others were denied and left to suffer. Businesses who were granted waivers in Nancy Pelosi’s district come to mind. It turns out this sort of corruption doesn’t go over well with the American people, especially in an election year.