Obamacare Waivers Come to An End

The Obama Administration accepted its last Obamacare waiver application yesterday.   Nearly 1,500 healthcare plans have applied for waivers.  The waivers were requested to skirt around some of the most serious and harmful insurance mandates of Obamacare.  Together, these plans cover almost 3.4 million people.

To date, union healthcare plans still account for more than half of the total number of individuals who have received waivers – roughly 1.7 million.  The Obama administration, however, has no explanation for why union members represent the greatest number of waiver recipients.  These same unions fought extremely hard to ensure Obamacare was implemented in the first place.  They’re happy to have small businesses and other organizations fall under the grasp of Obamacare as long as they are excused.

While not openly admitted, the most likely conclusion for why the Health and Human Services Department provided the cut off date was to end the monthly humiliation of signing off on waivers that demonstrate the serious flaws in Obamacare.  The fact that over half of the people covered in the waivers come from union plans only heightened that necessity.

So what happens to all of the businesses who will not receive waivers from these intrusive federal regulations?  They can only hope that Obamacare is found unconstitutional when the Supreme Court ultimately takes up the case down the road.  In the meantime, they are left with uncertainty which only stagnates economic and job growth.