Barrasso Introduces Obamacare WAIVE Act

The bill would allow individuals the same access to waivers from Obamacare given to unions and companies and offer a relief from the law’s prohibitive requirements.

Barrasso said in a news release about the WAIVE Act, “It’s only fair that all Americans, not just a select few, are given the opportunity to escape the mandates of this law. Under my bill, anyone can submit a waiver application seeking relief from the health care law. This ensures all Americans have the freedom to seek the care they need, from the doctor they want, at a price they can afford.”

The Department of Health and Human Services has already granted 1,471 waivers covering over 3.2 million people. Elements of the President’s health care law have been termed “financially impossible” even by unions that supported the law initially. In light of the gradually increasing exceptions, the administration has changed the rules and will only accept waivers until September.

Barrasso recognizes the necessity of opening the waiver application process to everyone, rather than ending it entirely. The current law requires employers to provide $750,000 of coverage to each employee in 2011. By September of next year that number jumps to $2 million dollars.

Wyoming’s republican senator explains the issue from the perspective of prospective business owners, “If innovative Americans want to start new businesses after September, they will be faced with two difficult choices. They can offer high-cost, government-approved health insurance — making it expensive to try to open a new business and hire workers.”

Rather than making health care available to all, the incentives in the law make it more cost effective for employers to drop coverage and pay the $2,000 per employee fine. Individuals without coverage will have no alternative to heavily subsidized insurance exchanges. According to Barrasso, the cost of subsidizing these insurance policies will add up to a bill of nearly a trillion dollars each year which will inevitably be passed on to American taxpayers.

It seems like it would make the most sense to repeal the original law, rather than create additional steps to work around it, but that process would undoubtedly take more time than most individuals and small businesses can afford. Barrasso’s statements show an awareness of the need for immediate action as well as continued attention to health care legislation.

“I will continue to fight to repeal and replace this law with patient-centered care that lowers costs for all Americans. Until we are able to repeal and replace the health care law, I will move forward with the Waive Act. This bill offers all Americans the freedom to choose.”