McDonald's, 29
other firms get
health care
coverage waivers
Updated 8h 14m ago
By Drew Armstrong, Bloomberg Business News
________________________ ___
Nearly a million workers won't get a consumer protection in the U.S. health reform law meant to cap
insurance costs because the government exempted their employers.
Thirty companies and organizations, including McDonald's (MCD) and Jack in the Box (JACK), won't
be required to raise the minimum annual benefit included in low-cost health plans, which are often
used to cover part-time or low-wage employees.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which provided a list of exemptions, said it granted
waivers in late September so workers with such plans wouldn't lose coverage from employers who
might choose instead to drop health insurance altogether.
Without waivers, companies would have had to provide a minimum of $750,000 in coverage next
year, increasing to $1.25 million in 2012, $2 million in 2013 and unlimited in 2014.
REFORM: A consumer primer for health insurance changes in 2011
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"The big political issue here is the president
promised no one would lose the coverage they've
got," says Robert Laszewski, chief executive officer
of consulting company Health Policy and Strategy
Associates. "Here we are a month before the
election, and these companies represent 1 million
people who would lose the coverage they've got."
The United Agricultural Benefit Trust, the California-
based cooperative that offers coverage to farm
workers, was allowed to exempt 17,347 people. San
Diego-based Jack in the Box's waiver is for 1,130
workers, while McDonald's asked to excuse
115,000.
The plans will be exempt from rules intended to
keep people from having to pay for all their care
once they reach a preset coverage cap. McDonald's,
which offers the programs as a way to cover part-
time employees, told the Obama administration it
might re-evaluate the plans unless it got a waiver.
McDonald's and Jack in the Box didn't immediately
respond to requests for comment.
The waiver program is intended to provide
continuous coverage until 2014, when government-
organized marketplaces will offer insurance
subsidized by tax credits, says HHS spokeswoman
Jessica Santillo.
The regulations would have hit some insurance
plans for young adults in the universal coverage
program run by the state of Massachusetts. The
program, enacted in 2006, has a plan for
individuals ages 18 to 26 who can't get coverage
through work, covering about 5,000 people. The
waiver obtained by the state "will give us time to
implement the transition plan in a manner designed
to mitigate premium increases," says Dick Powers, a
spokesman for the state program.
The biggest single waiver, for 351,000 people, was
for the United Federation of Teachers Welfare Fund,
a New York union providing coverage for city
teachers. The waivers are effective for a year and
were granted to insurance plans and companies that
showed that employee premiums would rise or that
workers would lose coverage without them, Santillo
says.
© 2010 Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved
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The clusterfuck begins. where can I get my exemption?
This is more tyranny to where companies have to beg the government for waivers, etc etc.
FUCK YOU WHOEVER SUPPORTED THIS.
