Posted by JON WELLS, GUEST VOICE COLUMNIST Oct 8th, 2010
Faced with the prospects of rising costs for providing mandated increases in health care coverage, some companies have floated the possibility of dropping employee coverage altogether, most notably McDonald’s. In response, the Obama administration has granted 30 one-year waivers to McDonald’s and other businesses and insurance companies, exempting them from regulatory changes that will affect the vast majority of other businesses.
The fact that the administration has to grant waivers at all, no matter how short the duration, is a sign that the health care bill was poorly thought out and creates a fundamental disparity between favored companies and those without enough clout to ask for and receive a waiver. I guarantee you that 100% of all businesses would prefer to get an exemption similar to the one McDonald’s just received, but instead they’ll suffer unfairly simply because the administration couldn’t afford to get bad press over “too-big-to-fail” companies stressing about health care costs.
You see - it was always the big companies that had a lot of skin in the game...
I'd like to see the list of 30 companies that are now exempt.. and would like to know how they lobbied to get this exemption.
This is not so simple in implementation. Will the EMPLOYEES of those 30 companies be EXEMPT from the MANDATE? How many in all will go without insurance as a result?
What happens if they develop new conditions that become "pre-existing condition" in one year? What happens then? Without implementation, they will not be covered. The government does not have a public optioin with which to cover them either. They will get left out in the la-la land....
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Democracy needs defending - SOS Hillary Clinton, Sept 8, 2010 Democracy is more than just elections - SOS Hillary Clinton, Oct 28, 2010
You gotta love it. They exempt McDonalds whose employees are in the lower to lowest end of the financial spectrum.
WTG, Dems and Obama....yea, really the party of the working class.
Exactly!
I wonder if Dollar General is on the list too. You know, the companies that buy from China. I really want to see that list of 30 companies; cannot find so far.
What do you think are the chances of these companies giving health care coverage to their employees in another one year?
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Democracy needs defending - SOS Hillary Clinton, Sept 8, 2010 Democracy is more than just elections - SOS Hillary Clinton, Oct 28, 2010