ObamaCare’s Regulatory Madness
No state legislative session in your state this year? That isn’t reason enough to get a waiver from HHS in authorizing essential parts of ObamaCare as this update from Aetna’s Health Reform Weekly explains:
NORTH DAKOTA: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently notified the state Department of Insurance (DOI) that it has rejected the state’s request for additional time to select an essential health benefits benchmark. The DOI requested the extension in March, noting that the state cannot meet the federal deadline because the legislature is not in session this year. In a June 20 letter, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stated, among other reasons, that the deadline is necessary to provide carriers with sufficient time to design benefit packages that will be sold through an exchange.
In the letter requesting a waiver, Adam Hamm, North Dakota’s Insurance Commissioner explains that North Dakota is one of four states whose legislature meets every other year and that only the Legislative Assembly “has the power to make law mandating certain benefits be covered in insurance policies.”
Secretary Sebelius apparently expects Mr. Hamm to conjure new law out of thin air.
Federalism, anyone?
[Thanks to Beverly Gossage for the heads up.]
Could this be an abuse of power by the federal government?
How can you be so boneheaded as to refuse a request like this? They’re asking for more time because the body that would enact the new laws isn’t present, not because of political or ideological objections.
More states should follow the example of Texas and North Dakota and give state legislators every other year off. Of course, that doesn’t make it easy to comply with federal deadlines that require new state laws.
This is absolutely ridiculous.
Sebelius expects too much, from Mr. Hamm and from the American people.
With the legislature only having to meet every two years in Texas, the state is in an excellent position to be a stalwart against federal over-regulation by delaying the implementation of certain federal laws and regulations. Other states ought to take notice and meet every two years.
what’s ridiculous is that john & his crack team knows as much about the ND health insurance market – basically a blue cross monopoly – as sebelious does.
Move on, nothing to see here.