Maine Seeks U.S. Health Law Exemption to Keep Blackstone's `Junk' Insurer

Bloomberg reports:

Maine wants an exemption from the federal health-care law to keep a Wall Street-controlled insurer with a history of allegedly abusive practices from leaving the state.

Mila Kofman, Maine’s insurance superintendent, asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for a three-year waiver from the law’s requirement that insurers spend 80 percent of premium revenues on medical care.

Without the waiver, Kofman said in a July 1 letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, HealthMarkets Inc. will probably drop its Maine policyholders, who represent a third of the state’s individual market. HealthMarkets, based in North Richland Hills, Texas, is 77 percent-owned by funds run by Blackstone Group LP and Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Maine’s request is the latest example of the difficulty the Obama administration is having enforcing the strictures of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed in March. Although others have received waivers from the act’s rules, consumer advocates say the HealthMarkets group is different.

We'll bet anyone can get an exemption if they pay off the right people!