WASHINGTON – U.S. Reps. Joe Barton, R-Texas, ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, John Shimkus, R-Ill., ranking member of the Health Subcommittee, and Michael Burgess, R-Texas, ranking member of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, today asked Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about her implementation plans for the health law related to low-cost health plans.

USA Today reported on Oct. 6 that HHS granted waivers to 30 companies and organizations that were faced with dropping health insurance for lower-income employees, including McDonald’s Corp. McDonald’s needed the waiver in order to continue providing coverage to about 30,000 employees.
   
“This is not the first time we have learned that, when faced with the new costs, regulations and mandates in the health care law, companies will give serious consideration to simply ending their employee health care coverage,” Barton, Shimkus and Burgess wrote. “As you may recall, the law’s change in the treatment of retiree drug plans required many companies to publicly disclose new costs. When the Democratic majority of this committee investigated these companies for these actions, it discovered numerous internal company documents proving that these companies had realized it was cheaper to end health care coverage altogether.”
 
The lawmakers asked Sebelius to respond to the following questions:

•       According to USA Today, HHS has granted waivers so that “thirty companies and organizations…won’t be required to raise the minimum annual benefit included in low-cost health plans.” What companies or organizations were granted this waiver, and how many employees will this affect? Please provide a copy of both the waivers and a detailed description of the effects of the waivers.
 
•       Have any companies or organizations asked for the waiver discussed in the USA Today article but not been granted one? If so, what companies or organizations were denied this waiver and why?

•       As mentioned previously, according to The Wall Street Journal the issue is not merely whether the companies are granted waivers, but whether the insurers that offer these plans will be able to comply with new medical-loss ratios. Has HHS been contacted by any insurers to date about such a waiver to the ratio requirement? If so, please provide the names of the insurance companies that have done so. Has HHS granted any waivers of any kind to certain insurers, and if so what did those waivers entail?
 
•       Exempting these employers from coverage requirements and penalties will likely affect the cost estimates of the health care law. Has HHS calculated the effect of the waivers on the reported cost of the law? Please provide us with any information HHS holds on each exempted plan so that the impact of these exemptions may be examined.

The letter can be found here.