Welcome to the many readers who have discovered this story from 13-1/2 months ago over the past couple of days. Please be sure to read the comments, especially the first one, which give some important context to (and introduce skepticism about aspects of) our contributor’s story. A reminder to the 1% of you who might be in a position to pay that “tax penalty” on mandated premiums: the law contains provisions saying that you can’t be punished if you can’t pay. Not your normal kind of “tax,” huh? — G.A.D. 6/29/2012.
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While killing Osama bin Laden consumed the airwaves and print media for the past two weeks, and while we are now focused on the federal budget and our debt ceiling, the media has not addressed Obamacare waivers.
Over the past month 221 new Obamacare waivers were granted bringing the total of one year waivers to 1,372 groups that currently list over three million enrollees exempt from Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act.. There are seven categories that are broken out as follows:
39 Health Insurance Issuers covering 873,326 enrollees
457 Health reimbursement arrangements covering 116,379 enrollees
528 Self insured employers with 445,527 enrollees
315 Multi employer plans with 969,789 enrollees
27 Non Taft-Hartley union Plans covering 582,582 enrollees
4 State mandated covering 96,314 enrollees
2 Association Plans covering 11,776 enrollees
Some examples from each group added since March 1, 2011 are as follows:
United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 919 7048
Teamsters Local 237 Welfare Fund 51,679
Carpenters Distr. Council of K.C. Welfare Fund 20,898
United Food & Comml Workers Local 1529 10,459
SEIU Health Care IL 5,897
CWA Local 1182 Security Benefits Fund 7,158
Robinsdale Area Schools 2,108
City of Rochestor HRA 7,650
Dr. DAWG/RMI 2
Philips Ace Hardware Inc 7
S.F. Honda 33
Vanguard Truck Centers 3
Monterey Mushrooms Inc 2,428
Lexus of Austin 98
Truline Trucking 966
Public Employees Local 71 Trust Fund 413
Giumarra Vinyards Corp. 1,693
REI 1,180
Local 444 Sanitation Officers Assn 2,538
N.Y. State Nurses welfare Plan 19,518
ASE/AFSCME Local 52 774
In reviewing the federal data there were no waivers granted since last Oct to “Assoc. Plans” and no new additions on “State Mandated” plans since Feb 18th.
Notice that I intentionally selected firms from two participants to over 50,000.
The following links contain the entire listing for your verification.
Larry or as you’re also affectionately known as; the OJ’s government sponsored health care recipient,
I’m afraid your totally unbiased post about “Obamacare” doesn’t give any context, so I thought I’d provide it, (although I’m sure it’s waaaaay too much reading for the typical knee-jerk reactionaries who frequent this blog, it should be helpful to the open-minded);
The White House Blog
The Truth About Health Care Waivers
Posted by Stephanie Cutter
In recent days, there has been some confusion about the ability for businesses and insurance plans to receive blanket waivers from following the new consumer-focused rules of the road in the Affordable Care Act – the health reform law. As we continue to move forward with implementation, and work with the business community, insurance industry, state leaders, consumers and everyone else with a stake in improving our health care system, it is important that we set the record straight.
Here are the facts:
Today, over 165 million Americans get their health insurance through an employer—comprising nearly 70 percent of America’s insured population. Employers offer health insurance as a way to attract the best and brightest candidates in the work force. Employer-based insurance is the most common and efficient source of insurance coverage, which is why the Affordable Care Act takes steps to strengthen the employer-sponsored insurance market and make it easier and affordable for businesses to offer coverage to their workers.
However, not all coverage offered by employers is the same. Employers who hire full time middle to high income workers tend to offer more comprehensive plans that cover essential health benefits (hospital care, physician visits, preventive services, among others) and provide sufficient security against financial risk of illness and accidents for their employees. These employers offer more comprehensive coverage because workers are more likely to be able to pay their share of the premium. Workers at these firms are also more likely to work at the company for an extended period of time, making it good business sense for employers to invest in their workers’ long-term health since good health is linked to increased productivity. The law ensures this system continues, while helping to lower health care costs and providing financial support for employers who offer coverage to their retirees too young for Medicare through the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program.
Unfortunately, many workers don’t have this kind of quality coverage. Employers who hire lower wage, part time or seasonal workers are more likely to offer limited benefit plans. Retail or chain restaurant employers frequently offer limited benefit plans that contain less comprehensive coverage and annual dollar limits on how much workers can receive in health coverage. The premiums for these limited benefit policies (known as mini-meds) are significantly lower than for policies with comprehensive coverage and are more affordable for lower wage workers and their families. In exchange for the low premiums, these policies generally come with high deductibles and annual dollar caps as low as $2,000. In addition, in many cases, employees are paying the full cost of the insurance policy, with no help from their employer.
The good news is that mini-meds will be eliminated in 2014, thanks to provisions that phase out insurance companies’ use of annual limits between now and 2014. The “phase out” has already begun to kick in, and in 2014 when annual limits are completely eliminated, consumers be able to purchase health insurance in state-based Exchanges — new competitive marketplaces – where consumers and small businesses can shop for private coverage and will have the market power similar to large employers.
The bad news is that today mini-meds are often the only affordable option for many low-wage workers because retail and chain restaurants rarely offer their workers options beyond these plans. And because mini-meds are built around annual limits, estimates from employers and insurers indicate that beginning the phase out of annual limits this year would cause mini-med premiums to rise by more than 200 percent, forcing employers to drop coverage and sending many low-wage workers to purchase insurance on the more expensive individual insurance market, where they would get an even worse deal than what they have today. The result would be a whole new population of uninsured Americans.
To ensure that we protect the coverage that these workers have today until better options are available for them in 2014, the law allows HHS, in extreme cases, to issue temporary waivers from the phase out of annual limits. There are some important facts to remember about these temporary waivers:
The waivers only apply to one provision of the law – the provisions phasing out annual limits. Insurance companies and employers that receive waivers must comply with all other parts of the Affordable Care Act.
The waivers last one year. Insurance companies must reapply for the waivers each year between now and 2014 when annual limits on coverage will be completely prohibited and individuals will have more affordable and better private insurance choices in the competitive Exchange markets.
All employers and insurers that offer mini-med plans may apply for a waiver if they demonstrate that there will be large increases in premiums or a significant decrease in access to coverage without a waiver. You can read a list of employers and insurers that have received waivers here.
HHS also took an additional step to ensure these workers know more about mini-med policies and the limited coverage they may be buying. The Administration is requiring the issuers of limited benefit plans to notify consumers in plain language that their plan offers extremely limited benefits and direct them to http://www.HealthCare.gov, where they may be able to find better coverage options. The Administration has also restricted the sale of new mini-med policies, except under some limited circumstances. You can read more about this new announcement here.
We’re committed to implementing the Affordable Care Act quickly and carefully, and as we do, we’re building a bridge to 2014 when Americans will have access to affordable, quality health care options.
Stephanie Cutter is Assistant to the President for Special Projects
anonster. Unbiased? Shoot the messenger. The source and updated list was not created by me.
Larry Gilbert did not create Obamacare nor did he give one year waivers for tens of thousands of organized labor recipients.
I say tens of thousands as I don’t have time or desire to total up all the union members included in the current list.
Why do you feel it necessary to have over one million people getting an opt out benefit if the program was so fair and equal?
Larry aka; Mr. Medicare,
“Unbiased?”
If you think that using the term “Obamacare” isn’t showing YOUR bias, then I don’t need to “shoot the messenger” ‘cuz you’re already brain-dead.
From Factcheck.org;
FactCheck: Waivers “Merely Give Companies A Temporary Delay Before Being Required To Improve The Coverage Of Cheap, Bare-Bones Plans They Currently Offer.”
We’ve received several questions about whether businesses have been able to opt out of the new health care law. The companies haven’t been granted permission to ignore the entire law, as the Facebook post quoted by our reader might suggest — but many have been given one-year waivers to delay compliance with a key insurance mandate that was put into place this fall. The White House says it instituted the waiver process to enable those companies to continue to provide limited-benefits plans — cheap, bare-bones policies called mini-med plans — until the law is fully implemented in 2014.
[…]
The new health care law aims to eliminate low annual coverage caps like those over time, and this is where the waiver issue has come in. The law says that annual coverage limits can’t be set lower than $750,000 for new policy years starting between Sept. 23, 2010 and Sept. 23, 2011. That cap will be raised each year until 2014, when the law will require companies to have no annual spending limits on most benefits in health care plans.
[…]
The companies that have been approved for the waivers must reapply for them next year. Waivers are available until 2014. [FactCheck.org, 12/7/10]
And as to the “unfair canard, also from Factcheck.org;
Waivers Are Temporary, And Companies In Industries That Opposed Law Have Received Them
FactCheck: Companies From Industries That Opposed Health Care Reform Have Been Granted Waivers. From FactCheck.org:
[A]s of Dec. 3, the federal government had approved a total of 222 one-year waivers that allow the insurance plans at companies like McDonald’s, Jack in the Box and Ruby Tuesday, and unions, to ignore the requirement on annual limits. Far from being “Obama’s buddies,” as the Internet post claimed, the restaurant industry, through the National Restaurant Association, opposed the legislation.
anonster. “Waivers are temporary.”
Sounds like the former tax increase to balance our state budget. TEMPORARY.
The truth is that they will be temporary if we can shut Obamacare down. With that type of TEMPORARY I will praise our Congress.
Anonster.
At no time did I ever say I supported Obamacare.
In case you haven’t noticed we are an opinion blog not a newspaper
You have to love this. “Of the 204 new Obamacare waivers President Barack Obama’s administration approved in April, 38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Northern California district.” Folks were talking 20 percent of the latest waivers are all in her District.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/17/nearly-20-percent-of-new-obamacare-waivers-are-gourmet-restaurants-nightclubs-fancy-hotels-in-nancy-pelosi%e2%80%99s-district/#ixzz1MdB23fMD
This list includes Boboquivori restaurant, Cafe Des Amis, Bacchus Mgmt Group, Cafe Mason, the Compton Place Hotel and Hotel Nikko, S.F.
Annonster. Although I have probably driven by most of the above several times, due to their costs you will not find me in any of the above establishements . Good representation Nancy Pelosi. That’s why you can get reelected. Take care of your supporters at any price.