Latest ObamaCare crony giveaway appears on p. 72,340 of Fed. Register, Dec. 2. Income lost from the exemption means other Americans will pay more-Betsy McCaughey

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"Employers who are not exempted pay more in 2015 and 2016 to meet the $25 billion target."

12/12/13, "All I Want for Christmas Is My Freedom Back," Betsy McCaughey, Townhall 

"Most recent is Obama’s trick to spare unions from a fee that section 1341(b)(1)(A) of the Affordable Care unambiguously imposes on all large group health plans....

The union give-away is buried on page 72340 of the Federal Register for December 2, a voluminous publication where government discloses its mind numbing regulations. The Affordable Care Act set up a reinsurance program to compensate insurers in the individual market hit with high costs covering people with pre-existing conditions. The money is raised with a fee imposed on all group health plans, starting in 2014 through 2016, designed to raise $25 billion in all. Insurers and self-insured employers pay in proportion to the number of people they cover, so in 2014 the fee is $63 per covered person. 

For three and a half years, the Obama administration crafted regulations to impose the fee on all large group plans. But in the fall of 2013, unions pressed for an exemption. Then these words appeared on December 2: 

“Our continued study of this issue leads us to believe that this provision may reasonably be interpreted in one of two ways – it may be interpreted to mean that self-insured, self administered plans must make reinsurance contributions, or it may be interpreted to mean that such plans are excluded from the obligation…” 

That’s a lie. The Affordable Care Act’s reinsurance provision doesn’t use the word “self-administered” or distinguish between plans that pay their own claims and plans that hire administrators. But Taft-Hartley union plans self insure and self-administer and will therefore be exempted by the December 2 regulation. ...

The army of bureaucrats cranking out regulations and deceptions to justify them have no loyalty to the public or the U.S. Constitution....

The December 2 rule will mean that insurers and other self-insured employers who are not exempted pay more in 2015 and 2016 to meet the $25 billion target. It’s a zero situation. They will have grounds to sue, but the President is counting on the fact that they won’t. Insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and other industries are being corrupted by the Obama administration’s cronyism. They figure they’ll make it up somewhere else in a side deal with the administration."...via Howie Carr and Free Rep.




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