Waivers and Favors and Bailouts (Oh My!)
The list of political favors associated with the health care law grew longer late last week with the release of two new Administration reports. Late Friday evening, the Administration released without fanfare an updated list of waiver requests – a total of 1,168 plans, covering 2,934,927 individuals, received exemptions from the law’s supposed “consumer protections.” Moreover, nearly half (48.5%) of individuals in plans receiving waivers participated in union (i.e., multiemployer or Taft-Hartley) health plans.
Also late last week, the Administration released a report providing an update on the $5 billion early retiree reinsurance program, including a detailed list of recipients. The largest recipient of the $1.8 billion disbursed thus far was the United Auto Workers, which received nearly $207 million, or more than 10% of the overall total. (About one-sixth of the reinsurance plan money went to a single state – Michigan.) Other recipients of this federal largesse include public employee unions like CalPERS ($57.8 million) and the Screen Actors Guild ($1.3 million). And after receiving one massive taxpayer-funded bailout in 2009, “Government Motors” received an additional $19 million in taxpayer dollars to further relieve its retiree health costs.
At a time when President Obama talks of an “assault on unions,” it’s certainly interesting that state and local governments, along with old-line manufacturing unions like the UAW, are relying on what amounts to a $5 billion bailout from the federal government to help them pay for retiree health benefits they can no longer afford. It’s also interesting that the Administration also admitted it will stop taking applications to the reinsurance program on April 30 – because the bailout fund is being used so rapidly that it’s likely to be exhausted within months.
Both these reports once again illustrate the flaws of Democrats’ unpopular health care law. Specifically, giving waivers to politically connected health plans, while dumping billions more taxpayer dollars into the sieve of unsustainable promises made by governments, unions, and employers alike, does not constitute true reform.