It’s well-known here in D.C. that President Obama has a soft spot for cheeseburgers — he’s occasionally spotted at local burger joint and even has a burger
Perhaps he was promised a lifetime supply of Big Macs, because as employers work to comply with the various components of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the president has given a pass to McDonald’s, other employers and several health insurers from complying with the coverage standards required under reform, the New York Times reports.
After the burger-chain, which employs some 30,000 hourly workers, warned compliance with PPACA’s coverage standards would force the company to eliminate coverage, the administration came through with a one-year waiver. The pass allows McDonald’s to continue offering its mini-med health plan, capped at just a few thousand dollars, according to NYT.
The Times sussed out that similar one-year waivers have been extended to 30 insurers (including Aetna and Cigna) employers and union plans, freeing them from complying with PPACA’s rules against annual limits on health coverage.
Peter T. Harbage, a policy consultant in California, told NYT that he predicts more insurers and employers will lean on the government to delay or weaken the new regulations. "I think this pressure just increases until we get to 2014," he said.
Nancy-Ann DeParle, the White House director of health care reform, acknowledged the concessions to companies and insurers, NYT reports, with the goal of keeping more workers from losing current coverage before PPACA’s full force is effective in 2014. "It is a balancing act," she told the paper.
True, but is the scale weighted unfairly? What do you think of the waivers extended to employers and carriers to allow them to keep
