Over Half of All Obamacare Waivers Given to Union Members

Weekly Standard ^ | May 16, 2012 | Mark Hemingway

[KeyLargo]

Over Half of All Obamacare Waivers Given to Union Members

Mark Hemingway May 16, 2011 9:20 AM

In what is fast becoming a weekly event, the Obama administration granted 200 more companies waivers from the Democrats' sweeping health care law in the Friday night news dump. That brings the number of companies receiving waivers to 1,372. (You can get a full list of the companies exempted here.)

Not surprisingly, it helps to be a Democratic ally when seeking a waiver. The Republican Policy Committee reports that over half of the workers that have been exempted so far belong to unions:

The plans newly approved for waivers cover more than 160,000 people, bringing to nearly 3.1 million the number of individuals in plans exempted from the health law’s requirements. Of the participants receiving waivers, more than half – over 1.55 million – are in union plans, raising questions of why such a disproportionate share of union members are receiving waivers from the law’s requirements. The percentage of participants receiving waivers that come from unions also continues to rise – the number was 48% in April, and 45% in March.

Unions already received a generous concession in the health care bill. Their generous "cadillac" insurance plans were exempted from being taxed until 2018,

[randita]

If I am correct, these waivers are different than the individual mandate taxes-which is a capitation tax.

These waivers are exemptions from requirements relating to company provided health care plans for employees.

[afraidfortherepublic]

So? How can he grant waivers to Muslims and the Amish and force Catholic institutions to provide abortions?