Rove: Healthcare reform politicized

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 (UPI) -- A former top aide in the George W. Bush administration says U.S. healthcare reform legislation rewards friends and punishes enemies of the Obama administration.

In an item published Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove alleged "a disproportionately high number" of waivers to what he called onerous provisions of the Affordable Care Act are being granted to Obama administration allies.

He said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius began granting waivers in September to companies that provide low-cost healthcare plans with low annual limits on insurance payouts, and had approved 222 such waivers by December to companies including AMF Bowling and Universal Forest Product, as well as 43 union organizations.

"According to the department's Web site, the waivers cover 1,507,418 employees, of which more than a third (525,898) are union members," Rove wrote. "Yet unionized workers make up only 7 percent of the private workforce. Whatever is going on here, a disproportionately high number of waivers are being granted to administration allies."

Rove said Sebelius announced Dec. 21 that insurance companies proposing rate increases of 10 percent or more for individual or small group coverage would be required to justify the increases publicly.

"ObamaCare does not authorize HHS to deny rate increases, but the agency said that if a state 'lacks the resources or authority' to conduct the kind of review the agency wants, it will conduct its own," Rove said. "This proposed regulation will erode the states' dominant role in insurance regulation, centralizing more power in Washington."

Rove said the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives must "undo as many of the pernicious effects of ObamaCare that it can."