Aetna, Cigna, United Health and Teacher Union Gets Obamacare Waiver

[theDoctorisIn]

The Six Types of Obamacare Waivers
John Vinci –

You cannot listen to news about Obamacare without hearing about waivers. Obamacare waivers not only evidence a poorly conceived law, but the very need for a waiver transfers power to a bureaucracy where the individual, organization, or firm with the best lobbyists wins. What you may not know is that there are actually several types of waivers.

You cannot listen to news about Obamacare without hearing about waivers. Obamacare waivers not only evidence a poorly conceived law, but the very need for a waiver transfers power to a bureaucracy where the individual, organization, or firm with the best lobbyists wins. What you may not know is that there are actually several types of waivers:

MLR waiver for mini-med health insurance plans
Annual limit waiver
MLR waiver for States
State innovation waiver
ACO anti-trust waivers
Individual mandate waivers

Do you understand what any of those things mean?

The "MLR mini-med" waivers expired in 2011. They were temporary extensions on Medical Loss Ratio requirements for a few companies with "mini-med" plans.

The "annual limit waivers" expire on Jan. 1st, and are the ones I described above.

The "State MLR waivers" apply only to entire states, and I don't believe that any were given.

The "State innovation waivers" also don't actually exist, and would only apply to entire states.

And even your article says that "ACO anti-trust waivers" don't actually exist.

Individual mandates apply to individuals, not companies. These are the "religious exemption" waivers, and the like.

Literally everything you said is wrong. Look it up and stop being a moron. All links including HHS links are current.

You really need to read the links you post.

It might help prevent you from embarrassing yourself in the future.

 

[TemplarKormac]

All of these links you're posting are at least 3 years old, by the way.

Got anything more recent?

Check my above post.

 

[WelfareQueen]

Google States with Obamacare waivers before making anymore idiotic posts. Your stupidity is wasting everyone's time.

 

[TemplarKormac]

January 6th, 2012 - The Hill

Roughly 1,200 companies received waivers from part of the healthcare reform law, the Health and Human Services Department said Friday.

Friday marks the last time HHS will have to update the total number of waivers, putting to rest a recurring political firestorm. The department had been updating its waiver totals every month, prompting monthly attacks from the GOP.

Republicans say the need for waivers proves that the healthcare law is unworkable. HHS argues that the waivers show the law provides flexibility.

All told, 1,231 companies applied for and received waivers from the law’s restrictions on annual benefit caps. The law requires plans to gradually raise their benefit limits, and all annual limits will become illegal in 2014. Companies that received waivers can keep their caps intact until 2014.

The waivers cover slightly less than 4 million people, or about 3 percent of the population, HHS said.

Faced with the monthly cycles of GOP criticism, HHS announced last summer that it would stop accepting applications for one-year waivers and would simply grant or deny waivers all the way through the end of 2013.

The total of 1,231 includes all of the waiver requests HHS granted — companies that only applied for a three-year waiver, companies that got a one-year waiver as well as an extension, and companies that got a one-year waiver but did not ask for an extension.

HHS denied 96 waiver requests.

The final total is actually lower than the last monthly update. Earlier in the process, HHS had been granting waivers to a type of plan that it later decided should be completely exempt from the restrictions on annual limits. HHS had granted waivers to almost 500 of those plans before exempting them altogether.

HHS finalizes over 1,200 waivers under healthcare reform law - The Hill's Healthwatch

 

[theDoctorisIn]

That is what the search bar is for. Please, don't make me lead you by the hand.

No. If you're making a claim, it's your job to back it up, not my job to make your point for you.

It's pretty easy for an anonymous poster on Free Republic to claim that he got his list from a government site.

The fact it came from a legitimate (government) website means your dismissal of his OP was unwarranted. It doesn't hurt to dig into a link. I don't care what side they come from. But if you insist.

Annual Limits Policy: Protecting Consumers, Maintaining Options, and Building a Bridge to 2014 - Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

I don't deny that waivers were given. Just that the list in the OP is bullshit - which it is, by the way. None of those companies show up on the actual lists.

But again, those waivers don't "exempt" those companies from "Obamacare" - all they did was extend the deadlines for certain plan changes.

All of those deadlines have passed already - and those "waivers" are no longer in effect.

It's all pretty clearly laid out in your link above. They were 1-year waivers.

 

[Luissa]

Yep,

You heard me right. Aetna, Cigna, and United Healthcare get Obamacare waivers. In fact, virtually every major health insurance corporation gets an Obamacare waiver.

Now maybe my Democrat friends can help me to understand this. If Obamacare is so great, how come virtually every major health plan that is administering Obamacare gets to opt out of it? We the people don't get to opt out. What gives?

I know you'll also be shocked, but the United Federation of Teachers gets a waiver. Hundreds of Unions get a waiver. The Congress and their staffers get a waiver. But we the people do not. Please, can any liberals explain this to me?

Aren't the Democrats supposed to be for the little guy? The employer mandate gets waived for a year, but the individual mandate affecting we the people does not. How come?

Liberals...you wanted this shit. I think you're gonna have to defend it. Please go right ahead...we're all waiting for a logical explanation.




Here's a complete list of everyone who got a waiver. Funny, I don't see any tea party groups on the list. Wonder why? 729 other entities get waivers. I guess it's like the IRS thing. Probably a couple rogue HHS employees in Omaha or something.



List of 729 Companies and Unions with Obamacare Exemptions | Peace . Gold . Liberty

Wouldn't teacher unions be providing health care?
What are the waivers for?

 

[WelfareQueen]

Aetna, Cigna, United Health and Teacher Union Gets Obamacare Waiver
Yep,

You heard me right. Aetna, Cigna, and United Healthcare get Obamacare waivers. In fact, virtually every major health insurance corporation gets an Obamacare waiver.

Now maybe my Democrat friends can help me to understand this. If Obamacare is so great, how come virtually every major health plan that is administering Obamacare gets to opt out of it? We the people don't get to opt out. What gives?

I know you'll also be shocked, but the United Federation of Teachers gets a waiver. Hundreds of Unions get a waiver. The Congress and their staffers get a waiver. But we the people do not. Please, can any liberals explain this to me?

Aren't the Democrats supposed to be for the little guy? The employer mandate gets waived for a year, but the individual mandate affecting we the people does not. How come?

Liberals...you wanted this shit. I think you're gonna have to defend it. Please go right ahead...we're all waiting for a logical explanation.




Here's a complete list of everyone who got a waiver. Funny, I don't see any tea party groups on the list. Wonder why? 729 other entities get waivers. I guess it's like the IRS thing. Probably a couple rogue HHS employees in Omaha or something.



List of 729 Companies and Unions with Obamacare Exemptions | Peace . Gold . Liberty

 

[theDoctorisIn]

January 6th, 2012 - The Hill

Roughly 1,200 companies received waivers from part of the healthcare reform law, the Health and Human Services Department said Friday.

Friday marks the last time HHS will have to update the total number of waivers, putting to rest a recurring political firestorm. The department had been updating its waiver totals every month, prompting monthly attacks from the GOP.

Republicans say the need for waivers proves that the healthcare law is unworkable. HHS argues that the waivers show the law provides flexibility.

All told, 1,231 companies applied for and received waivers from the law’s restrictions on annual benefit caps. The law requires plans to gradually raise their benefit limits, and all annual limits will become illegal in 2014. Companies that received waivers can keep their caps intact until 2014.

The waivers cover slightly less than 4 million people, or about 3 percent of the population, HHS said.

Faced with the monthly cycles of GOP criticism, HHS announced last summer that it would stop accepting applications for one-year waivers and would simply grant or deny waivers all the way through the end of 2013.

The total of 1,231 includes all of the waiver requests HHS granted — companies that only applied for a three-year waiver, companies that got a one-year waiver as well as an extension, and companies that got a one-year waiver but did not ask for an extension.

HHS denied 96 waiver requests.

The final total is actually lower than the last monthly update. Earlier in the process, HHS had been granting waivers to a type of plan that it later decided should be completely exempt from the restrictions on annual limits. HHS had granted waivers to almost 500 of those plans before exempting them altogether.

HHS finalizes over 1,200 waivers under healthcare reform law - The Hill's Healthwatch

This link also pretty clearly explains what these "waivers" actually entail.

 

[TemplarKormac]

No. If you're making a claim, it's your job to back it up, not my job to make your point for you.

It's pretty easy for an anonymous poster on Free Republic to claim that he got his list from a government site.

The fact it came from a legitimate (government) website means your dismissal of his OP was unwarranted. It doesn't hurt to dig into a link. I don't care what side they come from. But if you insist.

Annual Limits Policy: Protecting Consumers, Maintaining Options, and Building a Bridge to 2014 - Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

I don't deny that waivers were given. Just that the list in the OP is bullshit - which it is, by the way. None of those companies show up on the actual lists.

But again, those waivers don't "exempt" those companies from "Obamacare" - all they did was extend the deadlines for certain plan changes.

All of those deadlines have passed already - and those "waivers" are no longer in effect.

It's all pretty clearly laid out in your link above. They were 1-year waivers.

Perhaps the OP was intending to show you how flawed Obamacare is, just by the amount of various exemptions being filed by these companies. Frankly, that you have to focus on what "kind" of exemptions they asked for is pretty shabby.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

The fact it came from a legitimate (government) website means your dismissal of his OP was unwarranted. It doesn't hurt to dig into a link. I don't care what side they come from. But if you insist.

Annual Limits Policy: Protecting Consumers, Maintaining Options, and Building a Bridge to 2014 - Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

I don't deny that waivers were given. Just that the list in the OP is bullshit - which it is, by the way. None of those companies show up on the actual lists.

But again, those waivers don't "exempt" those companies from "Obamacare" - all they did was extend the deadlines for certain plan changes.

All of those deadlines have passed already - and those "waivers" are no longer in effect.

It's all pretty clearly laid out in your link above. They were 1-year waivers.

Perhaps the OP was intending to show you how flawed Obamacare is, just by the amount of various exemptions being filed by these companies.

I promise you, I understand how flawed Obamacare is. But 1-year extensions for annual benefit caps are completely meaningless, and not examples of these "flaws".

It's a fucking awful law.

But that doesn't justify believing everything you hear about it. It's a matter of critical thinking.

 

[WelfareQueen]

Yep,

You heard me right. Aetna, Cigna, and United Healthcare get Obamacare waivers. In fact, virtually every major health insurance corporation gets an Obamacare waiver.

Now maybe my Democrat friends can help me to understand this. If Obamacare is so great, how come virtually every major health plan that is administering Obamacare gets to opt out of it? We the people don't get to opt out. What gives?

I know you'll also be shocked, but the United Federation of Teachers gets a waiver. Hundreds of Unions get a waiver. The Congress and their staffers get a waiver. But we the people do not. Please, can any liberals explain this to me?

Aren't the Democrats supposed to be for the little guy? The employer mandate gets waived for a year, but the individual mandate affecting we the people does not. How come?

Liberals...you wanted this shit. I think you're gonna have to defend it. Please go right ahead...we're all waiting for a logical explanation.




Here's a complete list of everyone who got a waiver. Funny, I don't see any tea party groups on the list. Wonder why? 729 other entities get waivers. I guess it's like the IRS thing. Probably a couple rogue HHS employees in Omaha or something.



List of 729 Companies and Unions with Obamacare Exemptions | Peace . Gold . Liberty

Wouldn't teacher unions be providing health care?
What are the waivers for?

My wife works for a major healthcare company that got a waiver. Their waiver exempts her employer from including some of the Federally mandated "preventive services," that are driving up premium costs. In other words, you can get a employer benefit plan more cheaply without all the Obamacare fluff. I do not know what the Teacher's Union negotiated. Whatever they got, it probably cost them several million in campaign contributions.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

The fact it came from a legitimate (government) website means your dismissal of his OP was unwarranted. It doesn't hurt to dig into a link. I don't care what side they come from. But if you insist.

Annual Limits Policy: Protecting Consumers, Maintaining Options, and Building a Bridge to 2014 - Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

I don't deny that waivers were given. Just that the list in the OP is bullshit - which it is, by the way. None of those companies show up on the actual lists.

But again, those waivers don't "exempt" those companies from "Obamacare" - all they did was extend the deadlines for certain plan changes.

All of those deadlines have passed already - and those "waivers" are no longer in effect.

It's all pretty clearly laid out in your link above. They were 1-year waivers.

Perhaps the OP was intending to show you how flawed Obamacare is, just by the amount of various exemptions being filed by these companies. Frankly, that you have to focus on what "kind" of exemptions they asked for is pretty shabby.

I know, it would be simpler if I just believed everything bad about Obamacare that I read on the internet - after all, everything on the internet is true, and since Obamacare is evil, it must be true.

Right?

 

[WelfareQueen]

There are six types of waivers. Annual benefit caps are only one. No one knows what waivers the 1,000 or so Companies, Unions, or States were able to sucker out of HHS and the Obama Administration. Needless to say, you can be certain a lot od cash changed hands.

 

[TemplarKormac]

I don't deny that waivers were given. Just that the list in the OP is bullshit - which it is, by the way. None of those companies show up on the actual lists.

But again, those waivers don't "exempt" those companies from "Obamacare" - all they did was extend the deadlines for certain plan changes.

All of those deadlines have passed already - and those "waivers" are no longer in effect.

It's all pretty clearly laid out in your link above. They were 1-year waivers.

Perhaps the OP was intending to show you how flawed Obamacare is, just by the amount of various exemptions being filed by these companies.

I promise you, I understand how flawed Obamacare is. But 1-year extensions for annual benefit caps are completely meaningless, and not examples of these "flaws".

It's a fucking awful law.

But that doesn't justify believing everything you hear about it. It's a matter of critical thinking.

Quick question Doc. You keep saying it's an awful law, but then you are for the second time in four days defending it's validity, so is it awful or not, Doc? It seems to me as if you are defending it not deriding it. My critical thinking skills are just fine, but with all due respect Doc, you sound very conflicted at the moment.

 

[TemplarKormac]

I don't deny that waivers were given. Just that the list in the OP is bullshit - which it is, by the way. None of those companies show up on the actual lists.

But again, those waivers don't "exempt" those companies from "Obamacare" - all they did was extend the deadlines for certain plan changes.

All of those deadlines have passed already - and those "waivers" are no longer in effect.

It's all pretty clearly laid out in your link above. They were 1-year waivers.

Perhaps the OP was intending to show you how flawed Obamacare is, just by the amount of various exemptions being filed by these companies. Frankly, that you have to focus on what "kind" of exemptions they asked for is pretty shabby.

I know, it would be simpler if I just believed everything bad about Obamacare that I read on the internet - after all, everything on the internet is true, and since Obamacare is evil, it must be true.

Right?

Did I ever say Obama was evil? I don't like him or his policies, but I have not once called him evil. I usually stay away from sites the OP used, but I decided to do a little digging rather than so easily dismiss it. To do so would have been very intellectually dishonest.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

Perhaps the OP was intending to show you how flawed Obamacare is, just by the amount of various exemptions being filed by these companies.

I promise you, I understand how flawed Obamacare is. But 1-year extensions for annual benefit caps are completely meaningless, and not examples of these "flaws".

It's a fucking awful law.

But that doesn't justify believing everything you hear about it. It's a matter of critical thinking.

Quick question Doc. You keep saying it's an awful law, but then you are for the second time in four days defending it's validity, so is it awful or not, Doc? It seems to me as if you are defending it not deriding it. My critical thinking skills are just fine, but with all due respect Doc, you sound very conflicted at the moment.

I feel like I've made my position clear, but I'll try to explain it.

What you are considering "defending the law's validity" is, actually me "defending" being honest.

I think that Obamacare will do almost nothing to solve any of the healthcare issues in this country. I think it's a giveaway to insurance companies and Big Pharma, and it's a corporate whore law written by a corporate whore Congress and and a corporate whore President.

But I feel justified in my dislike of Obamacare because I actually understand it - at least conversationally - and I have little tolerance for bullshit and those who swallow it, even if I agree with them in a more overall sense.

Obamacare isn't the end of the world. It's not going to destroy the economy, it's not going to destroy the insurance industry, it's not going to make you lose your insurance.

It's just not really going to solve anything - and it's going to cost a lot of money. Those are legitimate reasons to dislike Obamacare.

You don't need to lie about it.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

Perhaps the OP was intending to show you how flawed Obamacare is, just by the amount of various exemptions being filed by these companies. Frankly, that you have to focus on what "kind" of exemptions they asked for is pretty shabby.

I know, it would be simpler if I just believed everything bad about Obamacare that I read on the internet - after all, everything on the internet is true, and since Obamacare is evil, it must be true.

Right?

Did I ever say Obama was evil? I don't like him or his policies, but I have not once called him evil. I usually stay away from sites the OP used, but I decided to do a little digging rather than so easily dismiss it. To do so would have been very intellectually dishonest.

I said "Obamacare", not "Obama".

But it was hyperbole, either way.

 

[WelfareQueen]

I used the Heartland Institute, HHS, and a site listing entities that have received waivers. Is any of this controversial? This is not fucking Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh.

I am still waiting for anyone to defend all of these waivers. The dismissal of them as nothing is obviously bogus. Why would they exist if they are meaningless? Is that using good critical thinking?

Please provide a logical explanation for all of these waivers. I think we'd all be fascinated.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

I used the Heartland Institute, HHS, and a site listing entities that have received waivers. Is any of this controversial? This is not fucking Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh.

I am still waiting for anyone to defend all of these waivers. The dismissal of them as nothing is obviously bogus. Why would they exist if they are meaningless? Is that using good critical thinking?

Please provide a logical explanation for all of these waivers. I think we'd all be fascinated.

I have explained all of the waivers a few times already in this thread.

Also, all of the links that you've provided have explained the waivers as well.

 

[billyerock1991]

Yep,

You heard me right. Aetna, Cigna, and United Healthcare get Obamacare waivers. In fact, virtually every major health insurance corporation gets an Obamacare waiver.

Now maybe my Democrat friends can help me to understand this. If Obamacare is so great, how come virtually every major health plan that is administering Obamacare gets to opt out of it? We the people don't get to opt out. What gives?

I know you'll also be shocked, but the United Federation of Teachers gets a waiver. Hundreds of Unions get a waiver. The Congress and their staffers get a waiver. But we the people do not. Please, can any liberals explain this to me?

Aren't the Democrats supposed to be for the little guy? The employer mandate gets waived for a year, but the individual mandate affecting we the people does not. How come?

Liberals...you wanted this shit. I think you're gonna have to defend it. Please go right ahead...we're all waiting for a logical explanation.




Here's a complete list of everyone who got a waiver. Funny, I don't see any tea party groups on the list. Wonder why? 729 other entities get waivers. I guess it's like the IRS thing. Probably a couple rogue HHS employees in Omaha or something.



List of 729 Companies and Unions with Obamacare Exemptions | Peace . Gold . Liberty

whats there to understand ??? are you this stupid that you can't understand this???? more BS from the right wing losers