Obama Corruption AGAIN....He exempts AARP as payback for their support for Obamacare....

Here's the payback to AARP for them putting their support behind Obamacare....they got and exemption!....This President and his Administration is just sooooooo Corrupt!....you might think we lived in a third world country...


Some AARP Medicare Policies Exempted From New Health Care Rate Rules

Published December 24, 2010 | FoxNews.com

Health insurance company lobbyists have launched a new line of criticism against President Obama's health care overhaul, claiming the AARP got preferential treatment in regulations released this week.

The Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday proposed a set of regulations to ensure that large insurance rate increases are "thoroughly reviewed" at either the state or federal level. The rules would exempt so-called Medigap policies
-- supplemental insurance plans meant to fill gaps in Medicare coverage. And AARP, which endorsed the health care overhaul, sells these policies on behalf of a private insurer.

The White House called the claim that AARP is getting a break "categorically untrue."
Medicare expert Gail Wilensky, who ran Medicare and Medicaid under former President George H.W. Bush, says the regulation exemption is an early surprise in a complex law.

"There are just hundreds and hundreds of provisions that most people, even those who think they're informed, don't know about it," she said. "You can count on every year, for the next six or seven years as this unfolds, that we are going to discover provisions that no one was aware was in that legislation."

Wilensky is on the board of an insurance company whose Medigap plans are sponsored by AARP. She said the Medigap plans should not be included as part of the rate review anyway, but that neither should the other plans. "States have the right to regulate insurance," she said.

So did AARP get a break? It escapes certain health care overhaul regulations -- such as a restriction on insurance industry executive pay and a tax on insurance companies -- but AARP is not an insurance company.

But the Medigap plans, one of several kinds of health insurance plans AARP sells, will avoid the new rate reviews.

Under that system, insurers seeking increases of 10 percent or more would have to publicly justify them. Those plans would then be either scrutinized by the state or the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has promised to study supplemental Medicare insurance costs, but she notes the federal government has no authority to order changes.

An AARP representative could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, the White House continues to portray insurance companies as the bad guys of the health industry.

"I think there's genuine benefits that the law provided to Americans that they're going to have to talk about what happens when you put insurance companies rather than families in charge of medical decisions," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said.

And Republicans continue to look for ways to undermine the health care law. The temporary government funding bill Congress passed during the lame-duck session doesn't include money for implementing the health reforms.

House Speaker-designate John Boehner signaled a month ago that starving the program is part of the GOP strategy.

"Well, there's a lot of tricks up our sleeves in terms of how we can dent this, kick it, slow it down to make sure it never happens. And trust me, I'm going to make sure this health care bill never ever, ever is implemented," he said.