It is no secret that, since the passage of the healthcare law, the states have been desperately scrambling to figure out how to pay for the millions of people who are to be added to the Medicaid rolls if the law survives.
On February 3rd, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, wrote to the governors of the states:
“In light of difficult circumstances, we are stepping up our efforts to help you identify cost drivers in the Medicaid program and provide you with new tools and resources to achieve both short-term savings and longer-term sustainability while providing high-quality care to the citizens of your states.”
According to DHHS, some of these key areas of cost-savings to states include changing optional benefits by limiting their amount, duration or scope. Some of the benefits included are services such as prescription drugs, dental services, and speech therapy. In some cases people may be removed from the program.
This is an ironic turn of events. While the Democrats have spent years denigrating health insurance companies for limiting coverage, Secretary Sebelius is sounding an awful lot like health insurance managed care companies whose job it is to ration care. If you are on Medicaid, your state, according to DHHS, has the “flexibility” to limit or cancel your coverage for these types of services in order to make room for the thousands more who will proudly wear the “insured” label as required by Obamacare.
Further, in response to states who have requested “waivers” from some of the healthcare law’s requirements, Secretary Sebelius responded:
“I continue to review what authority, if any, I have to waive the maintenance of effort under current law.”
It would appear, from this statement, that the Secretary, who already has authorized waivers for over 700 companies and unions who are unable to meet the law’s requirement of no annual limits on health insurance coverage, is considering waivers from some requirements to entire states if the “flexibility” provided in the law is not sufficient for them to make the healthcare law cost-effective.
As events unfold, it would seem the Democrats are just as anxious to dismantle Obamacare as the Republicans. Consider that Michigan Senator Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who is facing a tough re-election bid in 2012, sponsored the bill that repealed the 1099 tax-reporting requirement for small businesses. Now she, too, can return home to constituents who are opposed to the law and say that she is helping to rid Obamacare of its imperfections.
Also facing re-election is Missouri Senator Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who is willing to support a bill that will allow states to “opt out” of Obamacare.
The healthcare law has already been declared “unconstitutional” by Judge Vinson in Florida. The case will, undoubtedly, be heard by the Supreme Court.
The House of Representatives has repealed the law, and is now poised to defund it. The Senate, while it did not repeal the law in its entirety, appears to be allowing the process of dismantling it.
And, now, Secretary Sebelius is authorizing waivers from the law’s requirements for companies, unions, and, perhaps, states.
At this rate, Obamacare may end up on its deathbed, running out of coverage. And for an administration and a Democratic party that often seems all too concerned with appearances only, that may be just fine. After all, as long as a healthcare law was passed, while they were in charge, does it really matter what’s in it?
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