Two Republican senators, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and John Barrasso of Wyoming, said Tuesday that evidence of the failure of the new health care law could be found in the number of employers that have been granted exemptions.
“This health care law, the cost estimates were so grotesquely underestimated,” Mr. Johnson said when he and Mr. Barrasso met with reporters in the Senate Press Gallery. “I think everybody in town in Washington understands what is the driver hurtling the country toward bankruptcy, and it’s the entitlement programs.”
Exemptions are offered for employers and labor unions that can afford to provide only the basics in insurance coverage to employees. So far, the administration has awarded waivers to nearly 1,500 insurance plans that cover 3.2 million people. But on Friday, President Obama announced that he was shutting down the waiver program early, with no new applications accepted after Sept. 22.
The two senators also took issue with a more specific detail of the law – the number of employees who potentially stand to benefit from the waiver program. Mr. Johnson said that with requests for filing extensions and the program’s cutoff date three months from now, the number of Americans covered by the waivers could rise to five million.
“It’s been an incredible nightmare and embarrassment to this administration,” Mr. Johnson said, to have so many people covered by insurance that does not meet the standards of the new law.
Mr. Johnson and Mr. Barrasso acknowledged that, for now, the fate of the law was in the courts, but said they hoped that a big electoral win in 2012 would give Republicans the majorities in Congress to repeal the law. “I’ve got my fingers crossed the Supreme Court will take a look at this,” said Mr. Johnson. “But we’ll need a very successful 2012.”
