I have another new article up, at ObamaCareWatch, on how the regulatory tangles brought about by the health care law are already becoming apparent:
[A]fter just six months of implementation, it’s clear that even ObamaCare’s fiercest critics underestimated just how badly and how quickly the new law would distort decision-making in American health care.
The latest sign of how bad things are — and how bad they will get — came in the form of a New York Times story indicating that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued waivers to dozens of employers and insurers to allow them to avoid, for the next year at least, some of ObamaCare’s costly new insurance requirements. According to the Times, the HHS waivers have gone to companies such as McDonald’s and Jack in the Box, as well as to selected health insurers and union-sponsored plans. These companies and plan sponsors were warning HHS that the new health law’s ill-advised and inflexible burdens would force them to drop coverage altogether — a fact that the legislation’s critics had predicted before passage, but that the administration denied. All totaled, about one million Americans are enrolled in plans that are now exempt from the costly new requirements; it seems likely that number will only grow in coming weeks with more HHS waivers.
The Obama administration is trying to have it both ways here.
Read the whole article here.