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Reporting: Health Care Waivers and Health Care Lobbying

By Paul Blumenthal

Sarah Dorsey on the Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group site posted yesterday about the continued health care reform lobbying.

Her post also included infographics breaking down some aspects of the 1,000-plus health care reform waivers that have been granted to businesses, unions, and cities and towns. Here's her description of the waivers:

While many of the act's major changes have yet to take effect, the administration has already exempted more than 1,000 groups from one of its requirements: the mandate to provide at least $750,000 in annual coverage per enrollee. About 2.6 million individuals with so-called "mini-med" plans are affected by these waivers.

The exemptions last for only one year, and are scheduled to be phased out in 2014, when states will be required to operate exchanges -- marketplaces where individuals can purchase coverage. The waivers are designed as a temporary stopgap to prevent beneficiaries from being dropped from coverage or priced out of it.

While small businesses were among those given the reprieve this year, including Captain Elliot's Party Boats, with 10 enrollees, and Hoosier Stamping and Manufacturing Corp., with 14, waivers were also granted to huge insurance companies. Aetna received an exemption for plans that cover over 209,000 enrollees, and Cigna's waiver affected 265,000.

The majority of those waivers have gone to employers and plans with under 500 enrollees. Here's the graphic showing the breakdown by type of organization receiving the waiver:

And here's the view by number of enrollees:

This, of course, does not show whether the smaller number of 5,000-plus enrollee plans contain the majority of the number of individuals granted waivers through the waiver program.

Read the whole story and see other graphics on the current lobbying on health care reform at the Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group site.

Full post as published by Sunlight Foundation on March 24, 2011 (boomark / email).