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Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the powerful chairman of Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, wants more details of the company’s intentions to drop a health care plan that could leave 30,000 employees uninsured, The Wall Street Journal reports.

McDonald’s proposed plans, reported first in the Journal earlier this week, highlight the increasing tension as companies and health insurers adjust how they cover workers or write policies in response to the new federal health care law.

And it reflects the increasing amount of scrutiny companies face from state and federal lawmakers and regulators.

In the case of McDonald’s, the issue revolves around a new rule in the federal health care law that requires health plans to spend the vast majority of its revenue from policy premiums on health care vs. administrative costs, or face penalties.

The new federal law requires insurers to spend at least 80 percent to 85 percent of premium revenue on medical care vs. administrative costs.

McDonald’s said it couldn’t meet that requirement because the so-called “mini-med plans” McDonald’s offers workers at 10,500 U.S. locations requires a high degree of administrative costs “owing to frequent worker turnover, combined with relatively low spending on claims,” according to the Journal.

It’s unclear from the Journal’s stories if workers at any of the McDonald’s in New Mexico might be affected.

The Obama administration has said its top health official will use her discretion in deciding when to enforce “a new health-law requirement, a move that could prevent McDonald’s Corp. and other employers from disrupting their health-care policies for hourly workers,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

View the original article here