An Obamacare Weiner-Waiver for New York City?
By Doug Powers • March 23, 2011
Last year, New York Rep. Anthony Weiner took personal ownership of the magnificent health care law, even to the point of proclaiming “the bill and I are one” like a monk trying to attain enlightenment using nothing but willpower, outbursts and a trillion dollars of other people’s money. In short, Anthony Weinerloves the health care bill.
It’s just that… well… it might not be right for his district:
Rep. Anthony Weiner said Wednesday he was looking into how a health law waiver might work for New York City.
Weiner, who is likely to run for mayor of New York, said that because of the city’s special health care infrastructure, his office was looking into alternatives that might make more sense. Weiner is one of the health care law’s biggest supporters; during the debate leading up to reform, he was one of the last holdouts in Congress for the public option.
“The president said, ‘If you have better ideas that can accomplish the same thing, go for it,’” said Weiner. “I’m in the process now of trying to see if we can take [President Barack Obama] up on it in the city of New York, … and I’m taking a look at all of the money we spend in Medicaid and Medicare and maybe New York City can come up with a better plan.”
[...]
“We in New York already have hospitals, we already employ doctors and we employ nurses. We have a lot of uninsured people. … [Setting up] the exchanges is the one piece of the puzzle that would be difficult for us to do,” he said. “I’m just looking internally to whether the city can save money and have more control over its own destiny.”
I thought the health care law was the mechanism that would save state and local governments as well as businesses money. It turns out that’s what the waivers are for and not the law itself. Gee, it’s almost as if they were lying about all this from the very beginning.
It’s possible Weiner believes he’ll have trouble being elected Mayor of NYC unless he can successfully disconnect them from the health care law that is his pride and joy — a fact that should give voters there all the more reason to question his judgment.
**Written by Doug Powers
Twitter @ThePowersThatBe
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