Obama Grants More Waivers From ObamaCare

The list of escapees is growing.

The Obama Administration has quietly granted even more waivers to one provision of the new federal health reform law, doubling the number in just the last three weeks to a new total of 222.

One of the more recognizable business names included on the newly-expanded list of waivers issued by the feds is that of Waffle House, which received a waiver on November 23 for health coverage that covers 3,947 enrollees.

Another familiar name was that of Universal Orlando, which runs a variety of very popular resorts in the Orlando, Florida area.  Universal was given a waiver for plans that cover 668 workers.

These waivers deal with limited health benefit plans, sometimes referred to as “mini-med” policies, which companies as large as McDonald’s use for some its employees.

The plan have limits on how much can be paid out in coverage, limits which would be phased out under the new health reform law.

The feds though have granted waivers from that law, amid concern that certain groups would drop their health insurance programs entirely.  Those waivers are good for one year, and can be considered for renewal.

A spokeswoman for Waffle House refused to explain the need for the waiver, saying “because Waffle House is a private company, we are going to decline to comment.”

As for Universal Orlando, a spokesman defended the waiver in an email on Monday evening.

“The new legislation would have left our part-time workers without their medical coverage,” said Tom Schroder of Universal Orlando Public Relations.   

“We sought the waiver so that we could continue to provide them with the coverage they need and deserve,” Schroder added.

The information on the waivers, which is buried deep on the web site of the U.S. Health & Human Services Department, shows that since it was last updated in mid-November, the number of waivers issued has gone from 111 to 222, covering organizations as diverse as the “Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Ogdensburg” to the “Pearson Candy Company.”

You can find a list of all of the 222 waivers at http://is.gd/iiw3u

Several weeks ago, critics singled out a number of unions which had received government approval for exemptions from certain provisions of the law dealing with annual medical spending limit requirements.

And there are more unions who have received waivers in this latest batch, like the Bricklayers Local 1 of MD, VA and DC, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, the Indiana Teamsters Health Benefits Fund, Service Employees International Union Local 1 Cleveland Welfare Fund, and more are listed.
http://blogs.ajc.com/jamie-dupree-washington-insider/2010/12/07/more-health-waivers/

Many of the assholes who helped shove this trainwreck through Congress are the same ones who were first in line to get out of it:

Exempted From Obamacare: Senior Staff Who Wrote the Bill
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/guess-whos-exempted-from-obamacare/

The United Federation of Teachers, the New York City branch of the American Federation of Teachers, which pushed ardently for ObamaCare has now requested – and received – a waiver from its mandates.
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2010/10/09/union-pukes-granted-exemption-from-the-obamacare-they-pushed/

Over the last several weeks the Health and Human Services Department has granted dozens of temporary waivers to certain ObamaCare mandates so that insurers and businesses won’t drop or cancel coverage. The most conspicuous went to McDonald’s to protect the “mini-med” plans for some 30,000 hourly workers from a rule that prohibits annual restrictions on benefits. Mini-med policies offer modest coverage at low premiums and other low-wage fast-food chains like Jack in the Box and Denny’s have been granted waivers as well.

Cigna, Aetna and a few other insurers have been given hall passes to continue selling mini-meds.  Another went to the United Federation of Teachers Welfare Fund.  The New York union offers city teachers supplemental drug coverage that would have been banned under the new rules.
http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/more-exemptions-from-obamacare/

If ObamaCare is so fucking great, why are the leftwing douchebags who hoisted it on their shoulders and paraded it around, breaking all land speed records running away from it?
After all the hard sell, spinning, threats, and venomous epithets hurled at opponents, the asswipes are exempting themselves from the consequences.
No one in their right mind wanted this shit to begin with. Now that hospitals are going through severe cutbacks, insurance companies are raising their rates, and doctors are refusing new Medicare patients, all in anticipation of the 2014 start of ObamaCare, none of them want it.

Maybe that’s what Queen Nancy meant by “passing the bill to see what’s in it”.