The Obama administration, meanwhile, has granted waivers to over thirty corporations exempting them from a key provision of the new healthcare law. Companies including the fast food giants McDonald’s and Jack in the Box, as well as the health insurer CIGNA, had warned they’d be unable to meet a new requirement banning annual caps on benefits. The administration says it’s issued the waivers to protect workers’ minimal coverage until the law takes full effect in 2014. But critics say the administration shouldn’t be intervening to protect the so-called “mini-med” plans because they don’t cover even basic emergencies.