Firms win exemption; 1 million workers lose out on better insurance coverage

[t0dd]

Source: CNN

Close to a million insured workers will lose out on a significant bump in insurance coverage promised by health reform next year.

McDonald's (MCD, Fortune 500), Jack in the Box (JACK) and other companies won a one-year exemption from a new rule requiring them to raise the maximum amount of coverage they offer employees.

All told 30 companies, also including insurers Cigna (CI, Fortune 500) and Aetna (AET, Fortune 500), received the waiver, affecting 968,765 enrollees.

Companies affected by the law were threatening to drop coverage completely or raise employees' premiums by as much as 200% in order to comply with next year's deadline, according to a government official familiar with the matter.

"We were in a situation where if we didn't take action, folks could lose their only source of coverage or pay an outrageously high premium. That wasn't acceptable," the official said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs explained the Obama administration's position Thursday.

"We want to ensure that in the time that it takes to implement the law, workers don't find themselves at the mercy of insurance companies jacking up rates," Gibbs said at a press briefing.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/07/news/economy/health_reform_waivers_annual_limits/index.htm?hpt=T1

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Our employer based health "care" system needs to come to an end. Single payer is the only option.

[SoapBox]

1. CONTACT the White House and tell them this is RIDICULOUS!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

Absurd.

[Joe Bacon]

32. After reading what Daschle said, why waste the time?

Daschle made it clear that the deals were made with PhRMA and the pimps who run the insurance rackets to make sure that they would still be given carte blanche to keep their extortion rackets going full blast.

I just got my notice from my insurance. The premium is going up by 19%. Plenty of new out of pocket charges, I will have to start paying $50 for each lab test, my prescription copays jump from $15 to $50. Seeing the Dr is jumping from $15 to $50 and it goes to $75 if I have to see him for more than 20 minutes. And instead of paying $100 for inpatient admission, it's going to $500.

And since I am diabetic, I have to wait till 2014 to get a couple crumbs out of this crappy cookie Mad Max, Beastly Blanche, LIEberman, Ben Nelson and Landrieu baked up for me, all with Obama's blessing.

[Tempest]

2. I'm starting to think Obama is playing a chess game with corporations

With single payer as the end result.

More and more people, including some on the right, are starting to consider single payer as a viable option.

[blindpig]

10. Looks to me that he's playing chess with you.

Knight to queens bishop 7. Checkmate.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Cal Carpenter]

16. Well, it's like this

let's say you need to go 50 miles east. You could do that, or you could go west 24,850 miles and get to your destination. Now, it may seem obvious to do the former, and maybe many people will fucking DIE on the long way 'round, but it's tricky, see, it's crafty, no one will ever see you comin', yeah, that's the ticket...

:eyes:

[Cal Carpenter]

14. Oh man

did you really invoke the chess metaphor without the sarcasm tag? Wowsa.

(and btw I have it on good authority that blindpig is an excellent checkers player)

[blindpig]

17. Checkers?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zkVKi_2sim8/SDB_flzTj6I/AAAAAAAAAFg/7ENJy9Aqzc4/s320/Nixon+and+Checkers+1957.jpg

[Doctor_J]

25. When? In 2014 like the rest of the "reforms"?

:eyes:

[Skittles]

3. they'll be applying for these waivers yearly

:thumbsdown:

[quakerboy]

33. Better yet

They will be receiving them yearly!! Its all so exciting. Wonder how much they paid to who to get this to happen, and who is next up in line to get an "Its ok, you dont have to comply with the law, no worries" next.

[Luciferous]

4. So what is going to change that will allow them to comply with the law?

I'm guessing nothing and they will pull the same crap a year from now.

The insurance that my husband's employer provides will get a rate increase and a decrease in coverage after the first of the year, but I guess we are supposed to feel lucky because we have some coverage, even when it sucks.

:eyes:

[Frank Booth]

5. From what I've read about the McDonald's "insurance" plan, workers would

be better off without it. They pay over $1500 for a policy that is capped at $10,000, so they're basically throwing money away since any health emergency is likely to bankrupt them regardless of the crappy policy.

I'm sure the only reason McDonald's offers the plan is for public relations, and the insurance company that writes the policies must make huge profits.

[thelordofhell]

6. .......also including insurers Cigna and Aetna

Absolutely shameful that an insurance company doesn't offer their employees good enough insurance.

[boppers]

20. I think those companies realize that "insurance" is a scam.

I hear they might be informed on the topic, for some reason or another.

[dogfacedboy]

7. Why do they even have the opportunity to get this exemption in the first place?

[SnakeEyes]

8. because it's an election year

Democrats don't want a million dropped from health coverage due to "Obamacare" right before election day. It would play right into the right's HCR talking points.

[Sherman A1]

9. Charming

just, Charming.........:banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[Occulus]

11. Oh for FUCK'S SAKE

:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[mike_c]

12. reason #1,793,299 that single payer is the ONLY solution...

...to America's predatory health insurance industry problem.

[area51]

31. +1

Each day, 273 people die due to lack of health care in the U.S.; that's 100,000 deaths per year.

We need single-payer health care, not a welfare bailout for the serial-killer insurance agencies.

We don't need the GingrichCare of mandated, unregulated, for-profit insurance that is still too expensive, only pays parts of medical bills, denies claims, bankrupts and kills people. Republinazi '93 plan:

"Subtitle F: Universal Coverage - Requires each citizen or lawful permanent resident to be covered under a qualified health plan or equivalent health care program by January 1, 2005."

"We will never have real reform until people's health stops being treated as a financial opportunity for corporations."

[NickB79]

15. I thought McDonald's denied the WSJ report about this last week?

Now it turns out the WSJ was right the whole time?

[riderinthestorm]

24. Let me be on record that I believed this report at the time.

I posted that I thought this was completely accurate. I'm sorry to see it was true.

Let me go further and reiterate another point: that major corporations will start to drop all their group employee insurance policies imho. They have no incentive to keep offering it - everyone is required to buy it individually in 2014 and insurance companies are required to offer it to everyone (at "fair market rates".... snort!!!)

This is just a foretaste of the roller coaster we're going to witness as health insurance "reform" wends it's way to full implementation.

Please note that I have already laid out my own story trying to arrange group insurance for my small biz this past spring. Health insurance companies aren't even writing new policies anymore for small businesses under 200 employees is what I learned first hand. There's no incentive for the health insurance companies to do so: it allows high risk PEC patients/workers/employees to slide in and get actual HEALTH CARE without enough healthy employees to cover the costs. Can't have that.....

[madville]

18. They just broke ice, thousands of corporations probably have their legal depts on this now

Expect an avalanche of waivers in the near future

[lonestarnot]

23. But of course.

[ThomCat]

19. Haven't many of us been warning, that for every benefit,

corporations will find ways around it?

Haven't we been warning that these benefits will exist only on paper?

Here is yet another example of companies maneuvering around the supposed benefits of the new health care "reform."

By the time that health care "reform" is finally in place we're all going to see that it is so full of holes it's worse that swiss cheese. The only place it will really work is in politician's imaginations, and in press releases and diagrams that show how it is Supposed to work.

In the real world, it's going to be a mess, that helps almost nobody, but funnels massive amounts of money into insurance company hands for no apparent reason other than to bulk up their profit margins. x(

[Francesca9]

34. Corporations did not find a way around the new law

The White House did.

[ThomCat]

39. This is true,

The white house created a way around the new law on behalf of the corporations. How sad is that. :(

[Francesca9]

21. Obama '08

What is this shit anyway? No one was supposed to lose their insurance. We were all supposed to get $2,500.


"Q. I like my current insurance coverage. Will I have to change plans?

A. No, you will not have to change plans. For those who have insurance now, nothing will change under the Obama plan – except that you will pay less. Obama’s plan will save a typical family up to $2,500 on premiums by bringing the health care system into the 21st century: cutting waste, improving technology, expanding coverage to all Americans, and paying for some high-cost cases."

http://www.barackobama.com/pdf/Obama08_HealthcareFAQ.pdf

[dflprincess]

26. Note that he said nothing about actually having access to care

only that you may you might save a bit on premium dollars you send to the same old crooks you've been paying. And, as time goes on, it doesn't look like that will happen either.

[Francesca9]

41. It is all true

[TBF]

28. He just didn't specify that he was talking about families in

the top 1% - which is where he focuses most of his policy decisions ... when they're back from break you can expect those tax breaks to be extended for a year too.

[indepat]

22. Jesus Christmas. Who woulda' ever thunk large corporations would extort the government

in this manner, threatening to teach Uncle Sam a lesson unless submitting to extortion? What a shame HCR could not have been written in such a manner as to teach the unruly a lesson instead of Uncle Sam having submit to extortion at a large corporation's slightest whim. ;)

[Francesca9]

27. The downside to voting on the bill without reading it

[Imajika]

29. One of the biggest waivers went to the United Federation of Teachers

351,000 members of the union United Federation of Teachers are exempted from the benefits of HCR for at least another year.

This law seems like it may have some serious problems. Why are these corporations/unions being given these exemptions? The very people that need HCR's protections most are being denied its benefits.

[Francesca9]

36. HCR denied these teachers access to health insurance until 2014

Can you imagine the electoral results if Obama had not waived the HCR requirement to take health care access away from teachers?

How much support would Obama have gotten in the 2012 election if these teachers had no access to health care until 2014?

[Imajika]

37. I thought it was a 1 year waiver...

Anyway, yeah, the law appears to have a lot of problems.

And my question is, what of the companies that don't have the lobbyist/infrastructure to appeal for a waiver. Are lots of other people losing health care because other companies don't bother to appeal but just drop coverage instead?

The whole thing is a mess. Basically, for most people, there is probably not enough in the law to make them thankful it passed. People's rates are just going to continue to skyrocket and now the Democratic party is perceived to OWN the health care issue. Every gripe, every complaint, every bit of anger at rate increases is going to be directed at us.

[Francesca9]

38. YOUR ANALYSIS IS EXCELLENT

If HCR is not fixed before the 2012 election - what will happen then?

We no longer have 60 votes in the Senate, we no longer can pass anything without Republicans.

We HAVE to fix HCR before 2012 - but will the GOP let us?

[PassingFair]

30. Public Option.

We need it. I think it will happen.

It will be the thin end of the wedge for single payer.

[Francesca9]

35. These waivers are an admission by the White House that HCR was crap.

Something will happen, reform will occur, but this law is dying and it is dying fast

This law will be amended and waived so many times by 2014 that none of what is expected then will actually occur.

The 2012 election will ensure that both parties act to repeal it before that election. What passes will necessarily be bipartisan and much milder than what passed in 2010.

If not repealed or seriously modified it will sink everyone who backed it in the 2012 election. Americans want the promised $2,500 cost reduction and will not accept 20% cost increases. If Democrats don't fix HCR, then after 2012 with a majority of Republicans in Congress and a GOP president it will get changed.

The idea was to pass a crappy bill and fix it later. That assumed that Americans would accept a crappy law and 20% health care cost increases and new taxes until 2014 without revolting. That was a stupid assumption.

[activa8tr]

40. IF Obama had just put his foot down for single payer, we would have avoided all of

this drama!

The total cost of health care for all Americans and guests in our nation divided by the number of earners, pensioners, etc, scaled to cost per thousand of total income for all Americans, and a 1% mandatory tax on any business doing a million dollars of profitable business in the USA.

All would have been covered. Insurance companies and drug makers out of making outrageous profits, No paperwork, (which would pay for 15% of health care actually delivered to 15% of people instead of to paper pushers).

We could have been fully in place by September 1, 2010, but, of course, Obama decided to make this a "bi-partisan" drama, by inviting penny-pinching Republicans to do their drama thing, not a real opportunity for everyone to be automatically covered, just by virtue of citizenship or legal residency.

America missed her chance to be equal to Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Japan, reducing competitive advantages of all those nations. Everyone covered from birth to death, legal visitors covered by mutual agreement. (My American born mother broke her leg visiting in the UK, never got a bill), and we would all be spending our time talking about how we can solve unemployment, solve racial divides, solve bullying of gay people, etc etc. Instead we are stuck with these foolish "gimme more than you" arguments for the next ten years, thanks to Obama's timidity.

I think this was Obama's biggest mistake. How about you?

[hayu_lol]

42. Noticed that CIGNA came up for mention several times...

wasn't it CIGNA that offered their CEO a hundred million dollar bonus. It was either that or a 60% pay increase. I don't remember which.