HCR -NOT for everyone

[littlewolf]

McDonald's, 29 other firms get
health care coverage waivers


By Drew Armstrong, Bloomberg Business
News

Nearly a million workers won't get a
consumer protection in the U.S. health
reform law meant to cap insurance costs
because the government exempted their
employers.

Thirty companies and organizations,
including McDonald's (MCD) and Jack in the
Box (JACK), won't be required to raise the
minimum annual benefit included in low-
cost health plans, which are often used to
cover part-time or low-wage employees.


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 big political issue here is the president
promised no one would lose the coverage
they've got," says Robert Laszewski, chief
executive officer of consulting company
Health Policy and Strategy Associates. "Here
we are a month before the election, and
these companies represent 1 million people
who would lose the coverage they've got."

The United Agricultural Benefit Trust, the
California-based cooperative that offers
coverage to farm workers, was allowed to
exempt 17,347 people. San Diego-based
Jack in the Box's waiver is for 1,130 workers,
Advertisement

while McDonald's asked to excuse 115,000.

The waiver program is intended to provide
continuous coverage until 2014, when
government-organized marketplaces will
offer insurance subsidized by tax credits,
says HHS spokeswoman Jessica Santillo.


The biggest single waiver, for 351,000
people, was for the United Federation of
Teachers Welfare Fund, a New York union
providing coverage for city teachers. The
waivers are effective for a year and were
granted to insurance plans and companies
that showed that employee premiums would
rise or that workers would lose coverage
without them, Santillo says.


read the entire thing here I just cut some of the high points

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2010-10-07-healthlaw07_ST_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip