Number of healthcare reform law waivers climbs abo

[EmptyTimCup]

What was the point of reform ....

Number of healthcare reform law waivers climbs above 1,000

By Jason Millman - 03/06/11 03:38 PM ET

The number of temporary healthcare reform waivers granted by the Obama administration to organizations climbed to more than 1,000, according to new numbers disclosed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS posted 126 new waivers on Friday, bringing the total to 1,040 organizations that have been granted a one-year exemption from a new coverage requirement included in the healthcare reform law enacted almost a year ago. Waivers have become a hot-button issue for Republicans, eager to expose any vulnerabilities in the reform law.

In order to avoid disruption in the insurance market, the healthcare overhaul gives HHS the power to grant waivers to firms that cannot meet new annual coverage limits in 2011. The waivers have typically been granted to so-called "mini-med" plans that offer limited annual coverage — as low as $2,000 — that would fall short of meeting the new annual coverage floor of $750,000 in 2011.

 

[Mongo53]

What was the point of reform ....

Incremental Socialism?

Creating another entitlement that would become another third rail of politics, that no matter how bad it gets, any attempt at reform would be demagogued as Democrats being its defender and Republicans being evil ogres bent lining their pockets with the health care money for children?

Expanding the Dependent class, that become entire voting blocks for the Democrats from the elderly, minorities, lazy and criminal to the entire population of the United States?

Conservative Kryptonite? With enough Demagouging and enough people become dependent, anyone that touches the issue will become weaker and the Democrats become stronger. Until the whole country collapses, then the Democrats will still find a way to blame that on the republicans.

 

[EmptyTimCup]

well yeah ......









(it was really a "Throw Away Question")

 

[SamSpade]

How many waivers do they need to give out until they have effectively NULLIFIED it? Say, when the waivers actually cover 80% or more of American workers?

 

[Tilted]

How many waivers do they need to give out until they have effectively NULLIFIED it? Say, when the waivers actually cover 80% or more of American workers?

I don't know, but plans that have thus far received waivers cover about 2% of privately insured Americans. Much of that comes from a few large plans that have recieved waivers (e.g. CIGNA). Most of the waivers are for plans that cover only a relatively small number of people. There's no way enough would be issued to cover anywhere near 80% of people. A waiver wouldn't be needed by the majority of plans (i.e. by coverage numbers).

Just to be clear, these waivers only apply to one specific part of the new health care requirements - the Section 2711 (of the Public Health Service Act) restrictions on annual group plan limits. Those annual limits must be at least $750,000 for 2011 (i.e. plan years that begin prior to September 23, 2011), $1,250,000 for 2012 and $2,000,000 for 2013 (i.e. being prior to January 1, 2014), and are prohibited altogether starting in 2014. These waivers are for group plans or coverage that wouldn't be able to meet those requirements (i.e. soon enough) without "a significant decrease in access to benefits under the plan or health insurance coverage or [a] significant[] increase [in] premiums for the plan or health insurance coverage." They are for one year at a time, and can't be granted for plan years starting in 2014. Meaning, when the bulk of the law goes into effect, these waivers will no longer apply - they are a stop gap measure to prevent (additional) problems that might arise from different parts of the new law going into effect at different times.

The point being, even if all plans needed and got the waivers, that wouldn't really nullify the law - it would only relate to one part of the law and it would only mean that that part didn't really go into effect until much of the rest of the law did. I suspect some people are of the mistaken belief that these waivers amount substantively, for some groups, to exemptions from the law's requirements, rather than extensions of the time by which they are required to comply with those requirements.

 

[SamSpade]

Just to be clear, these waivers only apply to one specific part of the new health care requirements - the Section 2711 (of the Public Health Service Act) restrictions on annual group plan limits.

Thanks. Not that I wouldn't rather have a great big club to hit Obamacare supporters with, but I'd rather be right about it first.

 

[Mongo53]

Thanks. Not that I wouldn't rather have a great big club to hit Obamacare supporters with, but I'd rather be right about it first.

Nonno, take note, this is why some people have credibility and you do NOT.

Nonno, would prefer to make himself a great big paper mache club to hit conservatives with, and everyone on the board just looks around at all the harmless paper, flour and water shreads flying around, and ask themselves, who is this fool? What does he hope to acheive by pushing things so exegerrated, out of context, so mischaracterized, its nothing more than a daily dribble of hollow falsities.

 

[bcp]

Health care isnt about the workers, most workers already have health care.
this is about the bottom dwellers, those people that obama loves so much.

Trust me, in obamas mind he could not care less if someone that actually works for a living dies, his only concern is to make sure that crack momma gets her reparations that she is due.

 

[Tilted]

Comment on an entire state getting a waiver? It's merely a postponement, right?

Yes. Though that is a different kind of waiver (i.e. it is from PHSA Section 2718's medical loss ratio requirements), it is much the same in that it is, in essence, an extension of the time (until 2014) by which they (i.e. sellers of health insurance to the individual market in Maine) have to comply with the those requirements. It's another stop gap measure meant to mitigate problems created by different parts of the PPACA going into effect at different times.

Three other states have similar requests pending.

 

[Tilted]

Thanks. Not that I wouldn't rather have a great big club to hit Obamacare supporters with, but I'd rather be right about it first.

You're welcome. None of my comments were meant to imply that there isn't (still) room to criticize based on the whole waiver situation, though.