Documents released in a classic Friday afternoon news dump show that labor unions representing 543,812 workers received waivers from President Barack Obama‘s signature legislation since June 17, 2011.
By contrast, private employers with a total of 69,813 employees, many of whom work for small businesses, were granted waivers.We're shocked!
Thanks for the "news dump" link. I didn't read any information on the numbers you've given for waivers on that page.
ReplyDeleteI also didn't see anything about the actual number of requests for waivers by union organizations vs. small businesses, so it's hard to tell if one is "more equal" than the other.
One could also believe that since "small businesses" are, well, small, there might be many more grants of waivers to small businesses than to unions.
But I did read in your link (thanks again) that the waivers are only temporary until the law fully kicks in in 2014:
In order to protect coverage for workers in mini-med plans until more affordable and more valuable coverage is available in 2014, the law and regulations issued on annual limits allow the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to grant temporary waivers from this one provision of the law that phases out annual limits if compliance would result in a significant decrease in access to benefits or a significant increase in premiums. Plans that receive waivers must comply with all other provisions of the law and must alert consumers that the plan has restrictive coverage and includes low annual limits. Additionally, these waivers are temporary and after 2014, no waivers of the annual limit provision are allowed.
I learn SO MUCH reading this blog!