Via: gateway pundit : 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.
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