The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a blog article in their paper today with Jamie Dupree telling us that the HHS has announced another series of waivers for the Obamacare boondoggle. Although the number of new waivers was limited to only 129, approximately half of those are going to unions in true commie cronyism fashion. If you sense anger and bitterness in that last sentence, you are right. I am tired of these waivers going to unions and I am tired of this socialist nightmare. If President Obama cared about his country, he would listen to the citizens of the country rather than continue to try to enforce his healthcare dream that is the nightmare of 60% of America.
“The extra waivers bring the total to 1,168, giving businesses, health plans, unions and others an exemption from a portion of the law that in 2011 requires an annual benefit limit of no less than $750,000.
In other words, these 1,168 waivers allow companies to limit health insurance payouts to less than $750,000 — those annual benefit limits will be phased out by 2014.
Almost half of the new round of waivers were given to union health benefit programs, a fact that is sure spur new complaints from health law critics in the Congress, who see these waivers as evidence that the Obama health plan is flawed.
Among the unions that were recently approved for waivers:
- Teamsters Local 237 in New York, covering over 51,000 workers
- Carpenters District Council of Kansas City Welfare Plan, for 20,898 workers
- Southeastern Iron Workers, for 5,143 policies
- Minneapolis Retail Meat Cutters and Food Handlers for 10,720
- the Fulton Fish Market Welfare Fund for 1,211
Among the non-union recipients of new waivers, those included very average sounding businesses like the Mary Cariola Children’s Center in Rochester, NY, the Tumex Corporation of Yuma, Arizona, Belo Tank Xpress and Lexus of Austin.
The new waivers were released on the same day that Congress delved into the details of another part of the Obama health law, as the feds detailed over 1300 grants to companies big and small, designed to help them fund health coverage for early retirees.
Those grants went to well known companies like AT&T and General Electric, and major unions like the United Auto Workers. (See my previous blogs for the list of those recipients entitled, “Health Law Payments”).
Members of both parties sternly criticized officials involved in implementing the Obama health law, using a Friday hearing to blast the idea of giving $36 million to GE, which just reported $14 billion in profits, to help insure their early retirees.”
If you would like to peruse the list of waivers thus far, use the following link. The waivers are categorized at the bottom by the type of applicant.
http://cciio.cms.gov/resources/files/approved_applications_for_waiver.html
Questioning With Boldness... 