Posted on 05/17/2011 1:07:17 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
HHS: Pelosi had no influence on healthcare waivers to her district By Mike Lillis and Julian Pecquet - 05/17/11 02:53 PM ET
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had no influence on the healthcare waivers granted last month to businesses in her district, an official with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Tuesday.
Republican leaders on and off Capitol Hill had slammed the Obama administration for granting a growing number of health-reform waivers to constituents of the top House Democrat. But Steve Larsen, director of HHS’ Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, said those businesses were given no special treatment.
“These temporary waivers are necessary to help ensure that the waiters, dishwashers, maids, home health aides, and other hardworking people can keep the health coverage they have, while we transition to 2014, when they will have access to affordable coverage in a competitive marketplace,” Larsen told The Hill in an email.
“HHS applied the same standard to the application from Flex Plan Services that it uses when reviewing any application for a temporary waiver.”
Another HHS official told The Hill that Flex-Plan Services, a third party administrator used by many low-wage service industries such as restaurants and hotels on the West Coast, filed a request for 92 waivers on March 23, all of which were approved. The waivers are for Health Reimbursement Arrangements, whereby employers reimburse their workers for a limited amount of health expenses.
The approved waivers include 69 in California, 20 in Washington, two in Georgia and one in Alaska, the HHS official noted.
But Jim Aitken, the owner of Bellevue, Wash.-based Flex-Plan Services, denied that his company has ever applied for HHS waivers under the new healthcare law.
"We didn't file any waivers for anybody," Aitken told The Hill Tuesday.
A Jan. 7 letter to HHS from Flex-Plan Services attorney Tina Ann Davis indicates that the company has been interested in the waivers on behalf of clients.
"This letter is a request for waiver of the requirements of PHS Act section 2711 for the stand-alone HRAs that Flex-Plan Services administers," Davis wrote in the letter obtained by The Hill. “HRAs allow these employers to comply with the local law while providing an affordable health care benefit to their employees.
“Application of the annual and lifetime limit rule to stand-alone HRAs would completely eliminate the benefit,” she warned.
Shown the letter Tuesday, Aitken said, “We were interested in how the waivers were being given out … But we have had nothing to do with any waivers whatsoever.”
On Tuesday, the Daily Caller, a right-leaning news publication, reported that HHS approved 204 new waivers in April, with 38 of those – or roughly 19 percent – going to businesses located in Pelosi’s San Francisco district.
Republicans – including House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and former-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin – were quick to pounce, suggesting that Pelosi's constituents were given special treatment.
“It looks like ObamaCare’s backroom sweetheart deals didn’t end when it became law,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel told the Daily Caller.
Palin weighed in as well, accusing the Obama administration of corruption for granting the waivers to constituents of a key Democratic ally.
“Seriously, this is corrupt,” Palin told the Daily Caller. "And anyone who still supports the Pelosi-Reid-Obama agenda of centralized government takeovers of the free market and the corresponding crony capitalism is, in my book, complicit.”
Republicans also played up the news of businesses in Pelosi’s district racing to be exempt from certain requirements of the new healthcare law.
“Remember when former Speaker Pelosi said we needed to pass the ObamaCare bill to find out what was in it?” Steel told The Hill in an email. “I guess once they found out, the high-end eateries and spas in her Congressional District weren’t big fans.”
Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami accused the Republicans of spinning the story to win political points.
“It is pathetic that there are those who would be cheering for Americans to lose their minimum health coverage or see their premiums increase for political purposes,” Elshami said in an email. “The complaints coming from this crowd that supports ending Medicare is just another example of putting politics first.”
The Democrats’ new healthcare law prevents health insurers from capping annual benefits, beginning in 2014. The provision is being phased in, with minimum benefits set at $750,000 for 2011.
The one-year waivers are designed to prevent significant premium increases or an erosion of coverage. At the start of May, HHS had approved 1,372 waivers.
More than 90 percent of the waiver requests have been approved, according to HHS.
LOLOLOLOLOL
Yeah tell us another one, Grimm’s
They doth protest too much don’t they? I thought the only way to get a wavier was to go through your congressperson?
We had to pass it so we could know what was in it! She and Reid knew!
Serendipitous synchronicity. Yeah, that’s it...
Oh sure....
LIE! Nancy’s panties are one fire...
Are you going to believe your government BETTERS or your own instinct?
/”if you know what’s good for you” version coming soon
“HHS applied the same standard to the application from Flex Plan Services that it uses when reviewing any application for a temporary waiver.”
it’s just a coincidence, I tell you.
>>> But Jim Aitken, the owner of Bellevue, Wash.-based Flex-Plan Services, denied that his company has ever applied for HHS waivers under the new healthcare law.
“We didn’t file any waivers for anybody,” Aitken told The Hill Tuesday. <<<
How Nice! Apparently it just fell out the sky and randomly hit him.
And he didn’t contribute to help pass the ObamaCare, either./
* WINK * WINK *
But...
The president promised us that under his program, if we like the health insurance we already have, we will be able to keep it. Why would we now need WAIVERS from the requirements of the program in order to KEEP the insurance we already have?
Mr. Larsen isn't accusing the president of LYING about the contents of his health care legislation, IS he?
;-)
I will believe this when pigs fly.
I guess Hairy Reid had nothing to do with the entire State of Nevada getting a waiver either.
The lying is the downfall of these people.
The list, ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
We’re all raaaacists for questioning the waivers - i’m sure that pathetic accusation is coming any time -
Or half-racist. After all, the pres is half-white, something the bozos on the left seem to forget.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.