Where is leadership on Obamacare?

There seems to be no criteria used by Health and Human Services in granting or denying waivers to excuse insurers from provisions mandated by Obamacare. The list of Obamacare waivers keeps growing longer and longer, with the “chosen” benefiting from government waiver breaks from costly regulations

The latest waivers were granted on May 17, at which time “Medigap” policy provider American Association of Retired Persons, an ardent supporter of Obamacare, was exempted from oversight in publicly releasing and explaining health care payment rate increases as required under the Obamacare rate review rules.

Since April, more than 204 companies have been granted waivers, bringing the total number of waivers granted by HHS to 1,371 organizations, companies, towns and even states. Of the 204 waivers, 38 were in Nancy Pelosi’s California House district.

Unions are also well represented on the waiver list, including President Obama’s favorite, the Service Employees International Union.

Why the stampede for Obamacare exemptions? Wasn’t Obamacare supposed to cut health care costs? To the contrary, Obamacare rules are so onerous and expensive that employers are appealing to the government to put them in abeyance because the costs are too high for them to absorb.

Small businesses all throughout Illinois are already experiencing hard times. Many small businesses -- the engines of job growth -- will find prohibitive the added cost of providing health care to their employees, necessitating layoffs to keep doors open for business, as they lack the time, money or the clout to be considered for government waivers.

If Obamacare was promoted as affordable health care for all Americans, where is the level playing field, or was it ever meant to be, with a government that increasingly feels justified in picking winners and losers based on political calculations that will sweeten the pot for would-be voters in the upcoming 2012 presidential election?

Where is the leadership that was demanded of Republicans when they won back the U.S. House in the 2010 November elections?

Nancy J. Thorner

Lake Bluff