The Detroit News - Obamacare Waiver a Sign of Troubled Law

Op-Ed

By Rep. Mike Rogers

Since President Barack Obama's health law passed in 2010, it has become abundantly clear that even his own administration has found the massive law unworkable.

Remember when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius claimed the law's employer mandate would provide small businesses a "great incentive" for growth? Unfortunately, just the opposite has happened.

Today nearly 75 percent of small business owners say the law's confusing new mandates, regulations and taxes have made it more difficult to hire new employees.

Facing the prospect of layoffs and a disruption in health insurance for millions of families, the Obama administration has admitted the law won't work. This month, HHS announced enforcement of the employer mandate, a central component of the law, would be delayed for at least one year. Obamacare is so fundamentally flawed that even its supporters know it can't be implemented.

And remember when Obama repeatedly promised that "if you like your plan, you can keep it?" For too many Americans, that promise has already been broken. The president also promised his health law would reduce premiums by $2,500 per family. But premiums in some states have more than doubled.

As a result, over the last three years HHS has handed out more than 1,000 waivers to the health law to prevent millions of workers from losing their coverage. The majority of these waivers have been given to corporations and unions. Waivers have been distributed to Fortune 500 companies like Pepsi and McDonald's, unions, Las Vegas casinos and, in one case, an entire state. Providing waivers to corporations and delaying the employer mandate are tacit admissions by the administration that the law is broken beyond repair.

But while the administration is working to plug leaks in this sinking ship, not everyone is getting the help they need. Sadly, millions of Americans -- including most Michigan families -- have not been the recipient of a waiver or a delay in the law's mandates and will be forced to abide by Obamacare's requirements on Jan. 1, 2014.

If corporations and unions can get a waiver from the health law, every American should get one. That is why I have introduced a bill that would allow anyone -- an individual, a family, a small business -- to receive a waiver.

You should not need to be politically connected to keep your health insurance. I want to give Americans the tools to survive what Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, who helped write Obamacare, openly refers to as a "train wreck."

My bill uses the same standard created by the Obama administration: If the law increases your insurance premiums, you can apply for a waiver. If you're forced to drop the coverage you like, you can apply for a waiver. If your small business can't keep its doors open under the weight of Obamacare's new taxes and mandates, you can apply for a waiver.

The Obama administration has been pretty clear as to why these waivers are necessary. In an application posted on the Department of Health and Human Services website, applicants are told they can receive a waiver if one particular Obamacare mandate would result in a "significant increase in premiums" or a "significant decrease in access to benefits."

But the law includes dozens of new federal mandates and regulations that will make health care more expensive. Increasing costs are the number one reason Americans cannot access insurance.

Yet Obamacare does nothing to actually rein in health care costs. Instead, it forces Americans to purchase a government-designed insurance product which will be unaffordable for countless employers and workers.

If given the chance, most Americans would prefer to keep the coverage they have. Expanding the administration's own waiver process will allow families to keep their plans and small businesses to continue offering benefits.

It's only fair.

U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Howell, represents Michigan's 8th District.

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