Obamacare for You; Waivers for Us

[Townhallsavoy]

I'm surprised this hasn't been posted yet....

Of the 204 new Obamacare waivers President Barack Obama’s administration approved in April, 38 are for fancy eateries, hip nightclubs and decadent hotels in House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s Northern California district.

That’s in addition to the 27 new waivers for health care or drug companies and the 31 new union waivers Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services approved.

Pelosi’s district secured almost 20 percent of the latest issuance of waivers nationwide, and the companies that won them didn’t have much in common with companies throughout the rest of the country that have received Obamacare waivers.

Other common waiver recipients were labor union chapters, large corporations, financial firms and local governments. But Pelosi’s district’s waivers are the first major examples of luxurious, gourmet restaurants and hotels getting a year-long pass from Obamacare.

For instance, Boboquivari’s restaurant in Pelosi’s district in San Francisco got a waiver from Obamacare. Boboquivari’s advertises $59 porterhouse steaks, $39 filet mignons and $35 crab dinners.

Then, there’s Café des Amis, which describes its eating experience as “a timeless Parisian style brasserie” which is “located on one of San Francisco’s premier shopping and strolling boulevards, Union Street,” according to the restaurant’s Web site.

“Bacchus Management Group, in partnership with Perry Butler, is bringing you that same warm, inviting feeling, with a distinctive San Francisco spin,” the Web site reads. Somehow, though, the San Francisco upper class eatery earned itself a waiver from Obamacare because it apparently cost them too much to meet the law’s first year requirements.

The reason the Obama administration says it has given out waivers is to exempt certain companies or policyholders from “annual limit requirements.” The applications for the waivers are “reviewed on a case by case basis by department officials who look at a series of factors including whether or not a premium increase is large or if a significant number of enrollees would lose access to their current plan because the coverage would not be offered in the absence of a waiver.” The waivers don’t allow a company to permanently refrain from implementing Obamacare’s stipulations, but companies can reapply for waivers annually through 2014.

Café Mason, a diner near San Francisco’s Union Square, got a waiver too. When The Daily Caller asked the manager about the waiver and how the president’s new sweeping federal health care law was affecting his restaurant, he hung up the phone. The Franciscan Crab restaurant on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco got a waiver. Its menu features entrees ranging from about $15 to $60. The Franciscan’s general manager didn’t return TheDC’s requests for comment.

Four-star hotel Campton Place got one too, as did Hotel Nikko San Francisco, which describes itself as “four-diamond luxury in the heart of the city.” Tru Spa, which Allure Magazine rated the “best day spa in San Francisco,” received an Obamacare waiver as well.

Before hanging up on TheDC, Tru Spa’s owner said new government health care regulations, both the federal-level Obamacare and new local laws in Northern California, have “devastated” the business. “It’s been bad for us,” he said, without divulging his name, referring to the new health care restrictions.

But, the spa owner wouldn’t talk about it or the reason his company sought a waiver. He hung up after saying, “I’ve got clients on the other line, good-bye.”



Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/17/nearly-20-percent-of-new-obamacare-waivers-are-gourmet-restaurants-nightclubs-fancy-hotels-in-nancy-pelosi%e2%80%99s-district/#ixzz1MiHLGee8

[AUTiger1]

As I post this

But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.

all I can think is this: "I hate that bitch with the burning fury of a thousand suns and hope her fall of the face of the earth".

I fully expect the men in little black suits and sunglasses to be showing up at my door any moment.

[Snaggletiger]

We have to pass it so you can find out what's in it?  Am I reading this right?

Sounds like a lady I was talking to yesterday who had been having constant problems with her shoulder and it keeps getting worse.  She'd been going to this orthopedic doctor for a while and finally asked him shouldn't they do an MRI on it.  He said no, they'd only do an MRI if they were going to do surgery.

[Townhallsavoy]

CNN has picked it up as well.  There was some criticism as to the source of the story.

Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco district was the hands-down winner in the latest set of health care law waivers announced by the Obama administration.

More than three dozen businesses with locations in Pelosi's district were granted temporary exemptions from the law in April, according to information released by the Department of Health and Human Services. The businesses -- mostly restaurants and cafes, with a few upscale hotels and clubs mixed in -- accounted for about 20 percent of all waivers granted last month.

Pelosi's office did not respond to a request for comment. It was unclear why so many of the affected businesses were in her district, though the Obama administration, in a statement on the White House blog, said the original waiver requests came from a "third-party administrator" called Flex Plan Services.

According to the administration, the company administers health plans in several states, including California, and made a total of 92 waiver requests in March. Many of them were apparently for businesses in San Francisco.

"HHS applied the same standard to the application from Flex Plan Services that it uses when reviewing any application for a temporary waiver," Richard Sorian, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, said on the blog, adding that waivers are granted for businesses that prove they need them to avoid "a large increase in premiums or a significant decrease in access to coverage."

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Pelosi, though, was among the most vocal champions of the health care law as she and other Democrats helped shepherd it through Congress in 2009 and 2010.

Nevada, the state represented by Pelosi's then-counterpart on the other side of Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, also just received a partial exemption from a provision in the law requiring companies to spend at least 80 percent of premium money on medical care and related expenses. HHS will allow Nevada to keep that rate at 75 percent in 2011, out of concern that major insurers could otherwise withdraw.

The waivers in Pelosi's district pertained to a different requirement in the health care law dealing with annual benefit limits. The latest set brings the total number of such exemptions since the law's implementation to 1,372 nationwide. More than 3 million people are enrolled in plans affected by these waivers.

On the list of San Francisco businesses with a reprieve were The Stinking Rose, an Italian restaurant; TRU Spa, a day spa in the city; and the upscale Hotel Nikko. Daily Caller first reported on the exemptions in Pelosi's district.

Steve Larsen, director of the administration's Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, said in a statement that the waivers were deemed vital to workers in the service sector. "These temporary waivers are necessary to help ensure that the waiters, dishwashers, maids, home health aides, and other hardworking people can keep the health coverage they have, while we transition to 2014, when they will have access to affordable coverage in a competitive marketplace," he said.

But the latest list quickly raised questions among Republicans. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement that the waivers are a "tacit admission that the health care law is fundamentally flawed."

"Despite the president's promise, it appears that just because you like your health care plan does not mean that the administration will allow you to keep it," Upton said.

Newly seated Nevada Sen. Dean Heller also said the Nevada waiver exposes the law's flaws. "It is clear that the unique health care needs of individual states were not taken into consideration, and this is why Obamacare will not work for Nevada," he said in a statement.

The waivers are not intended to be permanent. The waivers granted to the San Francisco businesses last for one year at a time, and are meant to exempt certain companies from rules that restrict annual benefit limits. For 2011, the law prohibits most health plans from setting an annual benefit limit lower than $750,000 per individual policyholder. The law would eventually end annual limits, but in the meantime allows companies to apply for a waiver if they still have limits lower than the law allows.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney stressed Tuesday that the waivers "will no longer exist" by 2014. "It's basically a bridging mechanism," Carney said. He also said that fewer than 100 waiver applications have been denied so far.

The exemptions are meant to "protect coverage for these workers," according to HHS.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05/17/restaurants-cafes-pelosis-district-eat-health-care-law-waivers/

Notice that Harry Reid's state has gotten some benefits as well. 

A bunch of crooks. 

[AUTiger1]

We have to pass it so you can find out what's in it?  Am I reading this right?

Yes, I am afraid so.  She actually said that shit.  It was one of those moments (which seem to be growing btw) that made you say "lol wat?"

CNN has picked it up as well.  There was some criticism as to the source of the story.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05/17/restaurants-cafes-pelosis-district-eat-health-care-law-waivers/

Notice that Harry Reid's state has gotten some benefits as well. 

A bunch of crooks. 

I had forgot what all Nevada got out of the sweetheart deal, but it was enough to make you want to puke.  I think I remember Glenn Beck or Greta Man Susteren. 

[GH2001]

There should be NO waivers. NONE. Fucking NONE.


This is a total fucking scam - the whole healthcare law.

[Tarheel]

There should be NO waivers. NONE. effing NONE.


This is a total effing scam - the whole healthcare law.

I could not agree with you more.  Before this is all said and done we'll probably find that there are thousands of waivers for the Pharaoh's friends.

Further, what none of the socialists point out is that UmmbamaCare will siphon off BILLIONS of dollars from the MediCare program.  These same folk are quick to criticize Paul Ryan's Healthcare reform plan (by showing commercials of a Ryan look-a-like throwing Granny off of a cliff) but they say nothing about what O-Care will do to the program that so many retirees depend on for medicine and healthcare.

[GH2001]

I could not agree with you more.  Before this is all said and done we'll probably find that there are thousands of waivers for the Pharaoh's friends.

Further, what none of the socialists point out is that UmmbamaCare will siphon off BILLIONS of dollars from the MediCare program.  These same folk are quick to criticize Paul Ryan's Healthcare reform plan (by showing commercials of a Ryan look-a-like throwing Granny off of a cliff) but they say nothing about what O-Care will do to the program that so many retirees depend on for medicine and healthcare.

Ironic thing about Ryan is he is actually trying to SAVE the damn program from collapsing under its own weight, not put it out to pasture. Its all in perception and indoctrinating the naive masses into thinking something. Reality means nothing anymore.