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Friday, October 15, 2010

"The Secretary (HHA) shall determine"...can we all have a waiver?

According this editorial from Investors Business Daily, about one million workers have been spared a loss of their employer sponsored"minimedical" insurance, at least for the next year or so, until long after the November 2010 elections.

That is number whose insurance coverage has been "saved" by the waiver given by the Secretary of HHS.This includes 115,000 from McDonalds and 350,000 from the United Federation of Teachers Welfare Fund and according to IBD some 28 other companies or entities.

Quoting from IBD:

"How do you get a waiver from a law, anyway? This law was passed by elected representatives of Congress. How can unelected bureaucrats say some must obey this law but some don't have to?

Well, in lieu of specific guidelines in the law, it is riddled with the phrase "the Secretary shall determine." Which means we serve at the whim of the secretary of health and human services, currently Kathleen Sebelius."

Rule of law or rule of whim or of political expediency. This is likely just a sample sample of the many determinations that will be made by the HHS Secretary as ACA unfolds.

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