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No one seems to know what criteria HHS uses to grant or deny waivers to insurers from provisions in ObamaCare. The White House won’t release the names of those insurers and employers refused waivers or discuss denials at all. But maybe, just maybe, we could all agree that organizations that publicly pushed ObamaCare to approval should be ineligible to escape its consequences? The Daily Caller has learned that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rate review rules, which it finalized on Thursday, exempt “Medigap” policy providers, like the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), from oversight when such...

.., the problem of the ‘Obamacare Waivers’ continues with the latest Obama-Pelosi-Reid game of favoritism going to the AARP. Everyone knows that if we allocated just part of the trillion(s) given to the PPACA legislation to pay for uninsured care, combined this with an honest ‘buy-in’ of physicians who could contribute charity care in exchange for tax credits (for instance) to oversee reasonable outcomes-based changes to how medical and surgical care is delivered and payed for, and threw in open interstate competition for insurance companies, that we’d be most of the way ‘there’ toward meaningful reform. Add to these basic...

That’s right. I’m putting this right at the feet of the president himself. A family in Missouri has been fined more than $90,000 by the US Department of Agriculture for selling more than $500 of the furry creatures in less than one year. The families profit was a whopping $200 for the year.

If you knew a dangerous virus was about to hit America and that you could beg the government for a vaccine, you'd probably do it, wouldn't you? That's just what states and businesses alike are doing right now in preparation for Obamacare. But rather than seeking a vaccine, they're asking for waivers from the law's onerous requirements. To date, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has approved 1,372 Obamacare waivers, covering 3.1 million Americans. Yesterday, The Daily Caller reported that among HHS's most recent round of 204 Obamacare waivers, "38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent...

Nevada got a partial waiver from the health care law — a significant development that Democrats are dismissing as par for the course and Republicans are claiming as a political victory. The Health and Human Services Department announced late Friday that Nevada had secured a statewide waiver from certain implementation requirements of the Obama administration’s health care law, because forcing them through, the department found, “may lead to the destabilization of the individual market.”

The Health and Human Services Department announced late Friday that Nevada had secured a statewide waiver from certain implementation requirements of the Obama administration’s health care law, because forcing them through, the department found, “may lead to the destabilization of the individual market.” Nevada’s Insurance Division had appealed to the feds to reduce the federal requirement that health plans serving people who buy insurance on their own must spend at least 80 percent of the money they collect on medical expenses. Under the national rule, companies that don’t spend that percentage of revenue on medical costs have to cut policyholders...

Well, to be fair, Nancy Pelosi did warn us that we wouldn’t find out what was in ObamaCare until Congress passed it into law. Now we know what’s in it — political payoffs on an almost, er, Biblical scale: Of the 204 new Obamacare waivers President Barack Obama’s administration approved in April, 38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Northern California district.That’s in addition to the 27 new waivers for health care or drug companies and the 31 new union waivers Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services approved.Pelosi’s district secured...

Health and Human Services has made it very easy for companies to file for their own waiver to certain aspects of Obama Care. Given the personal mandate and challenges in getting helath care insurance, perhaps each of us should be filling for a Waiver.

Trump should announce he will waive the income taxes for people living in states that vote for him.

Vermont Senate advances health care billBy Dave Gram Associated Press / April 25, 2011 MONTPELIER, Vt.—The state Senate gave preliminary approval Monday to health care legislation that is a key part of Gov. Peter Shumlin's agenda. The bill, a version of which already has been passed by the House, would put Vermont on a path toward what it calls a "universal and unified health system" and what the Democratic governor calls single-payer health care, with the objective of ensuring health insurance coverage for every resident. The Senate legislation won initial approval on a 21-8 vote and is due for final...

Bassett official: Waiver extension for federal-state health reform 'good news'By Denise Richardson - Staff Writer The Daily Star Tue Apr 19, 2011, 03:30 AM EDT The federal government has extended a deadline that officials said jeopardized hospital projects, including three in the Bassett Healthcare Network. The extension overall is good news, Bassett spokeswoman Karen Huxtable said Monday. Work associated with the Bassett-Fox affiliation to establish clinical programs wasn't held up, she said, but the extension does mean that some remaining funds are now secured. In January, U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and other federal lawmakers sent...

Why is it legal for any President to hand out waivers that are worth millions of dollars? The quid-pro-quo aspect seems huge to me.

Congressman Brian Higgins, New York Democrat, cannot see how a city like New York, without the rest of the state, could qualify for a health care waiver. I don’t think its realistic you can get a healthcare waiver carve out for the city. That’s a precedent that would be very, very difficult at best,” he told me. “I think the possibility of a state-wide waiver, perhaps--but a city waiver? You think about, ‘What’s next?...Los Angeles, San Francisco, Kansas City?‘," said Congressman Higgins on fellow New York Democrat Anthony Weiner's claim that a health care waiver could work in New York...

A House Republican is pushing a new bill that would allow individuals to get a waiver from major provisions of the new healthcare reform law, including the so-called individual mandate. Pointing out that the Obama administration has granted more than 1,000 waivers to organizations for a provision of the law, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said everyone should have the opportunity. "It’s a matter of fairness," said Rogers, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee's Health subpanel. "Every American and employer deserves the opportunity to receive a waiver from the new healthcare law if it’s driving up costs and limiting...

New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner toasted the one-year anniversary of Obamacare this week -- and accidentally spilled his champagne glass all over the disastrous, one-size-fits-all mandate. Ostensibly one of the federal health care law's staunchest defenders, Weiner exposed its ultimate folly by pushing for a special cost-saving regulatory exemption for New York City. If it's good for the city Weiner wants to be mayor of, why not for each and every individual American and American business that wants to be free of Obamacare's shackles? Weiner joins a bevy of the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's" loudest cheerleaders --...

During the debate over his health care law, President Obama repeatedly promised that “if you like your plan, you can keep it,” but for millions of Americans that promise has already been broken. In a shocking admission, Obama’s administration has granted more than 1,000 waivers to the health law to prevent 2.6 million workers from losing their coverage. Millions more weren’t lucky enough to get a waiver, and have already been forced to switch plans. Most waivers have been distributed to Fortune 500 corporations like Pepsi and McDonald’s, unions, Las Vegas casinos and in one case an entire state. If...

Rep. Anthony Weiner said Wednesday he was looking into how a health law waiver might work for New York City. Weiner, who is likely to run for mayor of New York, said that because of the city’s special health care infrastructure, his office was looking into alternatives that might make more sense. Weiner is one of the health care law’s biggest supporters; during the debate leading up to reform, he was one of the last holdouts in Congress for the public option.

Karl Rove group sues administration over health reform waiversBy Julian Pecquet - 03/23/11 10:27 AM ET A conservative organization with ties to Karl Rove sued the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday to gain access to documents detailing how the department decides who can get waivers from the healthcare reform law. Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies (Crossroads GPS) says the suit was prompted by the department's failure to respond to a Jan. 7 request for documents under the Freedom of Information Act. The organization is seeking "any and all memoranda, guidance, directives, instructions and other documents … relating...

A sensible move is now underway in Congress to remove the option of a presidential 'waiver' from the Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act.This is something that should have been done years ago.The new Congressional effort is called "Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act of 2011".In the original Jerusalem Embassy Relocation Act adapted by Congress in 1995, certain unscrupolis legislators inserted  the "option" of a presidential waiver, whereby the POTUS was given a legal loophole to not impliment legislation that voters urged their Representatives to adapt.A real slap in the face of the democratic process.See previous post, "The Abuse of the National Security Waiver by Presidents".  The text of the new proposed...

PORTLAND, Maine - The federal government Tuesday granted Maine a waiver of a key provision in President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, citing the likelihood that enforcement could destabilize the state's market for individual health insurance. The U.S. Health and Human Services department said in a letter it would waive the requirement that insurers spend 80 cents to 85 cents of every premium dollar on medical care and quality improvement. Instead, the letter said, the state could maintain its 65 percent standard for three years, with the caveat that HHS intends to review the figures after two years. The decision...