“No More Waivers for You!”

Edmund Haislmaier /

In a classic case of the “Friday afternoon news dump,” last week the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it is closing the process to apply for a waiver to Obamacare’s annual limits provision in September.

Both the timing and substance of this decision confirm that HHS’s annual limit regulations and the decision to grant waivers was a public relations strategy gone bad. Friday’s announcement was little more than a move by the Obama Administration to limit further damage from a self-inflicted wound. (more…)