RNC Women

The Obama Administration announced today that thirty companies and organizations have been exempted from provisions contained in ObamaCare that could have caused nearly a million Americans to lose the health coverage they already have. 

According to an article in USA Today, “Without waivers, companies would have had to provide a minimum of $750,000 in coverage next year, increasing to $1.25 million in 2012, $2 million in 2013 and unlimited in 2014.”  The waivers cover workers at corporations such as McDonald’s and Jack in the Box, and provides an exception from ObamaCare for 351,000 people covered by a New York teachers union.  McDonald’s had previously told the Obama Administration that it might re-evaluate the wisdom of keeping the plans in place unless it received a waiver. 

Throughout the debate over ObamaCare, the president continued to argue that the government would not take away a person’s health coverage under his health reform plan.  What he failed to tell the people is that ObamaCare would require the government to create conditions that made it more and more difficult for employers to continue to offer health coverage to their employees. 

With the way ObamaCare was forced into law still fresh on the minds of voters, and with the general election less than a month away, the Obama Administration is now trying to paper over the failings of their health reform bill.  Speaker Pelosi famously said that Congress had to pass the bill so the American people could find out what’s in it.  It appears the same held true for the federal government itself.  As the bill is implemented, more and more problems will become clear. 

According to the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation, ObamaCare will force taxpayers earning less than $200,000 to pay roughly $3.9 billion more in taxes in 2019 alone.  ObamaCare carries with it hundreds of billions of dollars in new tax hikes and penalties.  As long as the Obama Administration is handing out waivers from its flawed experiment in health reform, perhaps they should consider the people who need one the most – the taxpayers.