GOP Attacks States’ Waiver Issue

When it comes to health reform and the reform law, President Obama just cannot win. He spends virtually his entire 2008 presidential campaign touting the “single most important change to healthcare delivery in half a century”, his inaugural term pounding the pavement to sell the package prior to passage and resisting assaults from those in the GOP and conservative Dems to abolish it altogether, and the second half of his term trying to get reelected so that he can implement his “singular domestic achievement” by defending it once more. With each small victory — seemingly Pyrrhic in nature — comes a yet another GOP headache. Most recently, it was the party’s rejection of Obama’s efforts at momentary détente^[1], now it seems that the GOP is seizing the granting of waivers of a different type by the government to states with some employers/organizations who are not able afford coverage for employees until the requirements for essential care kick in by 2014. The number of waivers granted to states to supplement so-called “mini-med” plans is at least 1000 in number and growing all the time (HHS disputes this and states applications are on the decline). The GOP is pouncing, using this as another reason to fault the reform law as having yet another liability in the quest to grant access to affordable, quality healthcare delivery to all. The issue is becoming more and more contentious, with a House Republican wanting to introduce legislation to give healthcare consumers “waiver rights” in the process. | LINK

1. Obama recently asked many GOP governors to consider moving up the date for alternative modes of reform-matched healthcare delivery as appeasement for recent rancor surrounding certain elements of the law.