House Investigates Health Law Waivers
The Hill reports:
Republicans on a second House panel with oversight power are investigating waivers the Obama administration has awarded to more than a thousand organizations for a provision of the healthcare reform law, The Hill has learned.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform wants to know why some organizations have been denied requests for waivers for the reform law’s new annual limit on coverage requirements.
As of Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had granted 1,040 one-year exemptions for groups that would not be able to meet the new annual coverage floor of $750,000 in 2011. In January, HHS told The Hill that the department denied about 50 waiver requests.
The waivers, which are good only for the law’s annual limits provision, have become a hot-button issue, with Republicans saying that the exemptions are either proof of the reform’s flaws or gifts to Democratic allies. The administration has repeatedly rejected both claims, pointing out that the law gives the HHS secretary the ability to offer waivers and that a large chunk of business groups have received them.
The Oversight Committee is accusing HHS of failing to respond to its requests for information about the waiver denials. The committee first asked for an explanation in early February, but a Tuesday letter to HHS says the department has been less than forthcoming.
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