Preferential Treatment: 500 New Obamacare Waivers

If the GOP doesn't capitalize on this news by incessantly demanding waivers for everyone (or full repeal), I have to conclude that the Republican party likes ObamaCare more than it is willing to admit:

A week after Republicans announced plans to investigate waivers granted to organizations for healthcare reform provisions, President Obama’s health department made public new waivers for more than 500 groups...

As of last week, HHS had granted waivers to 222 organizations covering 1.5 million individuals. Though the number of groups receiving waivers has now more than tripled, the number of individuals covered by the waivers increased just 600,000 to 2.1 million.

The law gives HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius the flexibility to grant waivers to avoid disruption in the insurance market, but Republicans say the waivers are either gifts to Democratic allies or proof that the reform law isn’t working. However, a large number of businesses, in addition to unions, have received waivers.

As of today, a total of 733 waivers have been granted for 2011. Paging Mitch McConnell; report to the Tea Party, STAT.

X-posted

More from RSM: Health Care and the ‘N-Word’

Repeal the Mandate, Stupid!

Americans who are unhappy with Obamacare should push for repeal of the "individual mandate." Conservatives don't like the individual mandate because it's an unnecessary power grab that tramples the constitution. Liberals don't like it because it forces people to do business with private insurance companies:

An individual mandate to buy private health insurance has never been progressive. It is less cost effective, less consumer friendly, less egalitarian, less universal, and more prone to corruption...

Barack Obama ran for president in opposition to the individual mandate. Here's what candidate Obama said about the individual mandate back in 2008:

Hillary's health care plan forces everyone to buy insurance, even if you can't afford it. Is that the best we can do for families struggling with high health care costs?

Hillary's health care plan forces everyone to buy insurance, even if you can't afford it... and you pay a penalty if you don't.

The way Hillary Clinton's health care plan covers everyone is to have the government force uninsured people to buy insurance, even if they can't afford it.

"...forcing those who cannot afford health insurance to buy it through mandates...punishing those who don't fall in line with fines."

Punishing families who can't afford health care to begin with just doesn't make sense.

Even PolitiFact, no fan of conservatives (Politifact credited Sarah Palin with the "Lie of the Year"), has rated Barack Obama with a "full flop" for his flip on the individual mandate:

Obama was vigorous in his attacks on Clinton for including an indvidual mandate in her plan. Now that the Democrats in the House have included a mandate in health reform legislation, he's fine with it. He admitted he changed position in the interview with CBS. Full Flop!

Obama can still redeem himself by supporting a repeal of the individual mandate. Obama has already issued hundreds of Obamacare exemptions by administrative fiat. Why not cooperate with Congress to repeal the most unpopular provision of the Democrats' health care law?

The individual mandate is wildly unpopular with the general public, so a repeal of this provision of the Democrats' health care law is entirely plausible.

There is one big problem, however. Repealing the individual mandate could bring down the rest of the Obamacare house of cards. If the individual mandate is repealed while leaving the rest of the health care legislation intact, the private health insurance industry would fold. This may be a satisfactory endpoint for some supporters of Obamacare, but without the revenues generated by the individual mandate, and without the reluctant cooperation of private insurers, Obamacare could quickly become politically unsustainable.

America is overwhelmingly opposed to the individual mandate. So let's repeal it. If the repeal succeeds, Obamacare fails. If repeal fails, supporters of the individual mandate will have to go on record and tell the voters why they're forcing this down America's throat. Either way, an up-or-down vote on a clean and simple repeal of the individual mandate could do a world of good.

The new Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives could get the ball rolling. Will they take action on behalf of the wishes of the American people? Will conservatives push the GOP hard enough?

Update: Robert "We're Going to Let You Die" Reich says we should let the individual mandate live. But with caveats, he grudgingly admits, "this is a smart strategy for the GOP."

Update II: Democratic support for repealing the individual mandate and other parts of Obamacare...

Hat tip: Conservative Home

X-posted

Update III:

Via Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: "...videotape of Obama hammering Hillary not only over the mandate but also over the use of fines to enforce the mandate:"

Repeal It or Be Replaced

ABC News reports on some disappointing rhetoric from the GOP. For some, ObamaCare is not a particularly big concern:

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who chairs the committee responsible for electing GOP senators this fall, said in an interview, "The focus really should be on the misplaced priorities of the administration" and Congress' Democratic leaders.

"The No. 1 concern of the public is jobs and people losing their homes," he said. "The administration has been obsessing on this health care bill."

Asked if he advises Republican Senate candidates to call for repealing the law, Cornyn said: "Candidates are going to test the winds in their own states.

There are a lot of problems with what Cornyn is saying.

Firstly, if the Government takeover of health care isn't a misplaced priority, I don't know what is. And if the GOP can't show an unwavering commitment to standing in the way of the malignant growth of unpopular and out-of-control government programs, there's really no reason to support the GOP.

Secondly, like most of the Democrats' plans, ObamaCare is a jobs killer. To improve the jobs market, Republicans will need to fight to repeal the Democrats' agenda...including ObamaCare. Let's get government out of the way so that Americans can save and create the jobs they need.

Thirdly, "testing the winds" isn't going to save this country. Republicans need to focus on what's best for our future, not what on seems to be popular at the moment.

The U.S. is on the wrong track; most voters understand that. Americans want real leadership that's focused on the long-term health of this country. We don't need a GOP that promises to keep moving in the same direction ― only at a slower speed.

The GOP needs a strong message. Not "tweak and adjust," not "repeal OR reform."

Repeal and Replace...or BE replaced

More

It begins: GOP inching away from campaign to repeal ObamaCare

Why the Health Care Bill Could Be Repealed

John Cornyn and the Eunuch Anencephalic ‘Leadership’ of the Republican Party

Popular Repeal

Discussion: Memeorandum