That Was Quick… House Republicans Already Investigating Obamacare Waiver System

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday asked the Department of Health and Human Services to provide detailed information on the over 200 groups requesting and receiving one-year waivers from Obamacare.

In November it was first reported that the Obama Administration had handed out 111 (now over 200) Obamacare waivers to special US companies… And, they hid this information from the American public. It took 6 clicks to find out this information on the government’s health care website.

Unfortunately, if you’re a small business or you don’t have the right connections you can’t get a waiver for your company from Team Obama. The bottom line is that democrats did not create a law that benefits all of us.

House Republicans are going to investigate these Obamacare waivers.
The Hill reported:

The Obama administration hit back at House Republicans’ plans to investigate implementation of the healthcare reform law.

Republicans on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday asked the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide detailed information about groups requesting and receiving one-year waivers for the reform law’s ban on annual coverage limits.

More than 200 groups, unions and businesses have so far received waivers from the requirement. Republicans say the waivers are proof of the reform law’s flaws and are Democratic gifts to union allies who supported the law.

However, HHS Kathleen Sebelius, in a sit-down interview with The Hill on Friday, called both assertions “pretty ludicrous.”

“The provisions in the law always gave some flexibility to me as secretary,” she said.

Sebelius said the waivers were necessary to help individuals keep their health insurance – even if it isn’t the best coverage – until new insurance exchanges opening in 2014 allow individuals and small businesses to pool their purchasing power.

Many of the groups receiving waivers offer low-cost health plans – often called “mini-med” plans – that would have violated the law’s requirement to offer at least $750,000 in coverage in 2011.

“I find it ironic that people who are always demanding flexibility from the federal government are now criticizing flexibility in the federal government,” Sebelius said.

So far, HHS has granted 222 waivers covering 1.5 million individuals. The largest waiver, which covers 351,000 individuals, was granted to the United Federation of Teachers Welfare Fund in New York.

Four different House committees have already mapped out plans to investigate the reform law, pass malpractice reform, provide more choice in health insurance and reduce costs of insurance for small businesses, according to a report by Bloomberg.

#1 January 23, 2011 at 9:03 am
Mikey commented:

Once again, I ask the question. If this law is soooooo great, why do waivers need to be issued? A good law stands alone. Obamacare is the chains that shackle we Americans. Government will decide who lives and who dies.
#2 January 23, 2011 at 9:21 am
heyitsmekelly commented:

“The provisions in the law always gave some flexibility to me as secretary,” she said.

Madam Secratary what ever happened to equal protection under the law some of the Democrat law makers were screaming about during the repeal debate ??? If you grant waivers to 1.5 million individuals , you must grant waivers to All !!!
#3 January 23, 2011 at 9:24 am
greg commented:

why not provide one waver to all companies currently in that class of insurance. If it is not available until 2014, all parties have the same issue and could be dealt with far more simply than one wavier at a time………………….unless to progress on an individual wavier visible support to the one’s billion dollar campaign is expected
#5 January 23, 2011 at 9:25 am
The Elector of Saxony commented:

“Madam Secratary what ever happened to equal protection under the law some of the Democrat law makers were screaming about during the repeal debate ???”

Some Animals have more equal protection under the law than others. The biggest farce and the most ludicrous exception is that the servants of the “People”, voted to exempt THEMSELVES from the healthcare law they passed. If Congress refuses to live under their own laws, they are no more than a tyranny.
#6 January 23, 2011 at 9:26 am
JPL17 commented:

Can you BELIEVE this government tool? Sebelius is now actually DEFENDING the socialist slogan in “Animal Farm,” that “All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.”

Impeach this entire administration.
#7 January 23, 2011 at 9:46 am
gastorgrab commented:

It directly contradicts the personal health care mandate.

If it’s necessary to sustain the existence of ObamaCare, then it’s necessary for ALL to contribute. A reverse-Bill of Attainder?
#8 January 23, 2011 at 9:46 am
Betsy Ross commented:

Would love to see Republicans remind people that the waivers are the BIGGEST proof that obamacare is crap….
obamacare is pure corruption….the kind you see in dictatorships…
#10 January 23, 2011 at 10:05 am
Blacque Jacques Shellacque commented:

Four different House committees have already mapped out plans to investigate the reform law,…

Is it really necessary to “map out plans”? This only telegraphs to the opposition what they can expect, and where the efforts will be directed, giving them time to figure out how to either get around or neutralize the investigations. Why not just decide the what and where among themselves and get on with it?
#11 January 23, 2011 at 10:22 am
valerie commented:

They had better also investigate this proposal:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/health/policy/23drug.html

The Federal Government under Barack Obama thinks that a relatively small government investment in drug research is going to fill the gap where industry investment has dropped due to poor government policy.

This is a huge mistake. We have a model available to study to prove it, as well, namely the takeover by the government of investment in HIV drugs. It did not work very well.

What needs to happen is that the Federal government policies that have operated to restrain investment need to be reviewed, so that private investment funds may be released wherever they will do the most good. With the right tax policy, private investment funds will always dwarf available government funds, and they will be available in a more timely fashion. The government is ill-suited to gamble public money on emergent technologies.

Otherwise, like in the case of BP drilling for oil, we are going to get insufficient investment, and it will be in the wrong companies, namely in the companies best suited to write applications and obtain waivers, instead of the companies that have the best research.
#12 January 23, 2011 at 10:34 am
Sickofobama commented:

I think it is great how fast the GOP is going after the Obama Regime.

Time is short and we must stop as much of Obama’s agenda as possible.
#13 January 23, 2011 at 10:43 am
John Lee Pettimoore III commented:

This is merely the tip of the iceberg of corruption in this administration. Obama believes in crony capitalism.
The price of Obamacare is now starting to affect American paychecks and retirement pensions for those not yet on Medicare. Someone has to pay for it and guess who gets the bill. The effect will be like a tax increase for the economy due to a decrease in discretionary income.
#14 January 23, 2011 at 10:46 am
Ditto commented:

I noticed in the list that Darden Restaurants were on the lucky ride to a waiver. The reason that made me curious is that I used to work for Red Lobster when it was owned by General Mills and not Darden.

Seems it took a left turn, has a college fund set up for minority children and nothing for the poor cracker children. I guess I could of looked up more, but I decided that was sickening enough. They had to of given to the Democrats to get this waiver.

So now I will never go to Red Lobster again, and they also own Olive Garden, which I always thought sucked anyway.

Maybe its time to list them all Jim, and start a boycott of every company that thinks that they are better than the rest of us! I’ve already begun with Red Lobster.
#15 January 23, 2011 at 10:51 am
John Lee Pettimoore III commented:

#14
“Maybe its time to list them all Jim, and start a boycott of every company that thinks that they are better than the rest of us!”

Extraordinary suggestion.
#16 January 23, 2011 at 10:52 am
tommy mc donnell commented:

if all laws have to apply equally to all people as we were told during the civil rights movement how can you issued waviers to exempt some people from the law? oh i forgot. they are hypocrites. same as the people asking for waviers, they are all people who supported obamacares passage.
#17 January 23, 2011 at 10:55 am
Robert commented:

I wonder if they are going to investigate that section of Obamacare where the federal government took over the entire college student loan industry.
#18 January 23, 2011 at 10:58 am
tommy mc donnell commented:

pass a law and they selectively apply it. does anyone here know if this has ever been done before. and they still think its constitutional.
#19 January 23, 2011 at 11:17 am
Insufficiently Sensitive commented:

Sebelius refuses to see the difference between a law, thought out to create or prevent certain well-defined conditions, and the arbitrary rule of a political commissar.

Obamacare deliberately provides thousands of commissar opportunities, and represents the beginning of the US descent from law to fascist rule. Such provisions also loudly invite corruption along lines of favor-trading, rent-seeking and just simple bribery.

Where is our glorious news media, absent from such common-sense concerns? Do they prefer rule by commissar to the rule of law? As long as it’s their commissar, I believe so. Any candidate in 2012 who does NOT raise such concerns will not be worth support – once in office, she’ll need to deal with the bad effects.
#20 January 23, 2011 at 11:24 am
Ditto commented:

Robert..that is another part of Obamacare that I dont understand. That is probably the easiest to overcome if the people wanted to. Or if they even know about it….

There is no hurry for our children to get a college education. That is not mandatory for our kids to go to, unlike K-12. (I also think we should take on K-12 also, but too many parents use it as a break and a babysitter).

If we kept our kids out of University for just 2 years, we would break the chain of funding easily. It would kill 2 birds with one stone, the govt loans and the nasty leftwing professors making all kinds of money off of our kids education (or lack of)..
#21 January 23, 2011 at 11:49 am
scituate_tgr commented:

Reviewing the list, it’s a fairly simple guess as to why a wavier was granted to each of them. My request to HHS is: I want to see those that did NOT receive a waiver and the reason why they were rejected.
#22 January 23, 2011 at 3:20 pm
myohmy commented:

Sebellius crook should be investigated, giving special favors for favored unions and corporations. if this is reform is really sooo… good. Why hand a waiver?