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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
A SENATE BILL that would allow states to apply sooner for waivers exempting them from certain requirements in the health care reform law is a worthy idea that Congress should approve.
While the reform law already has a waiver provision, the proposalintroduced by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and endorsed by the Obama administration last weekwould move up when states could apply for the waivers to 2014 from 2017.
To receive a waiver, a state would have to demonstrate that it could provide coverage to as many residents as the federal law would, in a comprehensive and affordable way that would not add to the federal deficit.
We aren't sure that goal could be accomplished in any state without an employer or individual mandate. Still, it is an idea worth considering.
Take Massachusetts, for example. The state has achieved near-universal coverage under a 2006 law that differs in several aspects from the federal law. For example, its assessments on employers that do not offer coverage are much lower than those in the federal law.
Why should Massachusetts have to wait until 2017 to get a waiver for a law that has met, if not exceeded, the coverage goals of federal health care reform?
That said, we hope a final version of the waiver speed-up legislation is put together with extreme care to ensure that states are not given the authority to impose special rules on employers with self-funded plans. At a time of rising health care costs, the last thing employers need is to face a new burden of trying to comply with what surely would be varying state benefit requirements.