Quotes

"Fascism and communism both promise "social welfare," "social justice," and "fairness" to justify authoritarian means and extensive arbitrary and discretionary governmental powers." - F. A. Hayek"

"Life is a Bungling process and in no way educational." in James M. Cain

Jean Giraudoux who first said, “Only the mediocre are always at their best.”

If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law. Sir Winston Churchill

"summum ius summa iniuria" ("More laws, more injustice.") Cicero

As Christopher Hitchens once put it, “The essence of tyranny is not iron law; it is capricious law.”

"Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Ronald Reagan

"Law is where you buy it." Raymond Chandler

"Why did God make so many damn fools and Democrats?" Clarence Day

"If I feel like feeding squirrels to the nuts, this is the place for it." - Cluny Brown

"Oh, pshaw! When yu' can't have what you choose, yu' just choose what you have." Owen Wister "The Virginian"

Oscar Wilde said about the death scene in Little Nell, you would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

Thomas More's definition of government as "a conspiracy of rich men procuring their own commodities under the name and title of a commonwealth.” ~ Winston S. Churchill, A History of the English Speaking Peoples

“Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.” ~ Jonathon Swift

Sunday, October 3, 2010

McDonald’s Case Highlights Obamacare’s Threat to Low-Income Workers, Political Freedom - OUR FREEDOM!

McDonald’s Case Highlights Obamacare’s Threat to Low-Income Workers, Political Freedom - By Michael F. Cannon - Critical Condition - National Review Online
Sept. 30, 2010

Many employers, such as McDonald’s, provide health benefits that are less comprehensive than most. They may have an annual claims limit of $10,000 or less. But if you’re young, healthy, and need to pinch your pennies, that may suit you just fine.

These are the health plans (and the workers) that are seeing the highest premium increases under Obamacare. The Wall Street Journal reports:

Trade groups representing restaurants and retailers say low-wage employers might halt their coverage if the government doesn’t loosen a requirement for “mini-med” plans, which offer limited benefits to some 1.4 million Americans…

McDonald’s, in a memo to federal officials, said “it would be economically prohibitive for our carrier to continue offering” the mini-med plan unless it got an exemption from the requirement to spend 80% to 85% of premiums on benefits…”Having to drop our current mini-med offering would represent a huge disruption to our 29,500 participants,” said McDonald’s memo…

Insurers say dozens of other employers could find themselves in the same situation as McDonald’s. Aetna Inc., one of the largest sellers of mini-med plans, provides the plans to Home Depot Inc., Disney Worldwide Services, CVS Caremark Corp., Staples Inc. and Blockbuster Inc., among others, according to an Aetna client list obtained by the Journal. Aetna also covers AmeriCorps teaching-program sponsors, who are required by law to make health coverage available.

Aetna declined to comment; it has previously indicated that the requirement could hurt its limited benefit plans.

“There is not any issuer of limited benefit coverage that could meet the enhanced MLR standards,” said Neil Trautwein, a vice president at the National Retail Federation, using the abbreviation for medical loss ratio.

Yet again, we have evidence that President Obama’s oft-repeated pledge that “if you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan” should have come with a disclaimer: Offer not valid for low-income workers.

Not to fear, says the Obama administration. According to Bloomberg:

The government may allow some low-cost plans like those offered at McDonald’s, which have limited benefits, to get waivers from the health law’s insurance requirements, according to a Sept. 3 Health and Human Services memo. Those requirements were waived for McDonald’s on Sept. 24, [HHS spokeswoman Jessica] Santillo said.

Sorry, but I don’t find it comforting that Obamacare gives HHS the power to waive these regulations on a case-by-case basis. Power corrupts. We’ve already seen HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius use other powers granted her by Obamacare to threaten insurers who contradict the party line about the law’s cost. The waiver power gives her another club to use against insurers and employers who complain about the law or donate to the wrong political campaigns. (Will Home Depot, Disney, CVS, Staples, or Blockbuster dare to misbehave?)

Any such criticism now triggers an autonomic reflex among administration spokesmen where they regurgitate the lines, “Americans have seen what happens when insurance companies have free rein. The Affordable Care Act ends insurance companies’ worst abuses.”

As if giving bureaucrats free rein to engage in abusive government practices is an improvement.

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