The Obama administration approved 204 new waivers to Democrats' healthcare reform law over the past month, bringing the total to 1,372.◼ Nearly 20 percent of new Obamacare waivers are gourmet restaurants, nightclubs, fancy hotels in Nancy Pelosi’s district - The Daily Caller
The waivers are temporary and only apply to one provision of the law, which requires health plans to offer at least $750,000 worth of annual medical benefits before leaving patients to fend for themselves. Still, Republicans have assailed the waivers as a sign of both favoritism and of major problems with the law.
"The fact that over 1,000 waivers have been granted is a tacit admission that the healthcare law is fundamentally flawed," Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said in March. Upton is one of three House committee chairmen who has used new oversight powers to investigate the annual limit waivers....
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....◼ House puts health care measure on Florida ballot - Miami Herald
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.
◼ In Idaho, Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter Signs Order Banning Health Care Reform - Miami Herald
◼ Oklahoma rejects $54.6 million in Obamacare funds - News OK
◼ Democrat in Missouri to Oppose Health Care Law - NYT
◼ 6 Pages of Obamacare Equals 429 Pages of Regulations - US News
Giving proof to Main Street's worries that President Obama's healthcare reform will lead to thousands of new and costly regulations, the Department of Health and Human Services has taken one small section of the law and written enough new rules to (equal) every page of Obama's campaign book, The Audacity of Hope—plus another 45 pages....◼ Washington Post and CBS receiving money from Obamacare ’slush fund’ - The Daily Caller
Two mainstream news organizations are receiving hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars from Obamacare’s Early Retiree Reinsurance Program (ERRP) — a $5 billion grant program that’s doling out cash to companies, states and labor unions in what the Obama administration considers an effort to pay for health insurance for early retirees. The Washington Post Company raked in $573,217 in taxpayer subsidies and CBS Corporation secured $722,388 worth of Americans’ money....◼ MORE: Harry Reid's entire state, Nevada secures partial waiver from federal health care law - Las Vegas Sun
The Health and Human Services Department announced late Friday that Nevada had secured a statewide waiver from certain implementation requirements of the Obama administration’s health care law, because forcing them through, the department found, “may lead to the destabilization of the individual market."
◼ Nancy Pelosi denies having anything to do with the Waivers - Huffington Post
