You and I might not be able to wiggle out of the deadly embrace of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act-but lots of large corporations can. The New York Times reported yesterday:
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.
The administration’s health care law was so bad that about 30 insurers, employers and union plans have been granted these waivers. The waivers are band aids-they last for a year. This just goes to show that a massive law, passed largely unread, is not going to work for the majority of American businesses.
But there is another problem-the Queen Kathleen problem. The Weekly Standard explains:
The bigger question is just how problematic it is that HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius can more or less unilaterally decide to whom the law applies and to whom it doesn’t – and when, where, and under what circumstances. The Obama administration was supposed to be “post-partisan.” Now, in the post-Obamacare world of politicized health care, the administration – with the help of lobbyists – can pick favorites and thus largely determine the winners and losers – even after a law has been passed. No wonder most Americans support repeal.