And so begins the inevitable playing of favorites that comes with all government regulation:
Nearly a million workers won’t get a consumer protection in the U.S. health reform law meant to cap insurance costs because the government exempted their employers.
Thirty companies and organizations, including McDonald’s (MCD) and Jack in the Box (JACK), won’t be required to raise the minimum annual benefit included in low-cost health plans, which are often used to cover part-time or low-wage employees.
After a year of “too big to fail,” we now have “too big for mandates.” And, thus, the rules of ObamaCare don’t apply to certain enormous corporations of the Administration’s choosing. Apparently potentially having a million people lose health coverage as a result of ObamaCare less than four weeks from the midterm elections was enough for the Administration to exempt them from a law that still applies to (and will cost) everyone else.
A question for my ObamaCare supporting friends: If passing this legislation was the necessary and moral thing to do, as President Obama often preached to us, why is it not immoral to allow some off the hook? It’s not as if the 30 companies given waivers are the only ones that would have to eliminate coverage as a result of increased costs associated with the health care law. If the law isn’t important enough for them, why is it important enough for anyone?
But this is exactly what you get when government steps in to “solve” something through regulation. They make the problem worse, usually harming the very people they profess to help (whether sincerely or not), then have to apply band-aids wherever they can to save face, criss-crossing over each other, until you’re left with nothing but an indiscernible mess of special exceptions, exemptions, price-controls, back-room deals, and political give-and-takes—all of which increase the scope, size, and power of government. Which, of course, is paid for in dollars and liberty by the usual victim: We the People.
Be sure to vote for someone on November 2nd who will repeal ObamaCare.
