Obama backtracks on health mandate, wants opt-out from start
“President Obama came out in favor of a significant change to the healthcare reform law for the first time on Monday, backing a plan that could erase the implementation of the mandate to buy insurance.
The president is supporting a plan that would allow states to receive waivers to pursue alternatives to the healthcare reform law, a change that could let states opt out beginning in 2014 from the requirement to buy insurance — one of the law’s most unpopular elements.”
“The law’s waiver provision comes with a catch, however. A state’s waiver proposal must show that it is capable of providing coverage that is at least as comprehensive and affordable as that offered through new state-run health insurance exchanges, which also open in 2014. The state must also provide coverage to as many residents as the exchanges would have, and the proposal must not increase the federal deficit.”
Via The Hill
