Administration To Delay Key Obamacare Provision

[ProSense]

Administration To Delay Key Obamacare Provision

By Igor Volsky

The Obama administration will delay implementation of the Affordable Care Act’s employer responsibility requirement, Bloomberg reports.

Under the provision, which was partly crafted by former Republican Senator Olympia Snowe (ME), large employers with more than 50 employees that don’t provide adequate insurance coverage must pay a fee of $2,000 per employee after the first thirty workers. Businesses will also be assessed a penalty if they offer unaffordable coverage that forces employees to spend more than 9.5 percent of income on insurance. In that case, the employee can apply for government subsidized coverage in the exchanges and the employer pays a fine.

Officials will not enforce the mandate until 2015, two administration officials told Bloomberg, “in order to simplify reporting requirements and give businesses more time to adapt their health-care coverage.” Mark J. Mazur, Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, explained the decision in a post on the Treasury Department’s blog:

This is designed to meet two goals. First, it will allow us to consider ways to simplify the new reporting requirements consistent with the law. Second, it will provide time to adapt health coverage and reporting systems while employers are moving toward making health coverage affordable and accessible for their employees. Within the next week, we will publish formal guidance describing this transition. Just like the Administration’s effort to turn the initial 21-page application for health insurance into a three-page application, we are working hard to adapt and to be flexible about reporting requirements as we implement the law.

Administration officials predict that the delay won’t cause employers to drop coverage, since businesses would still face a penalty in 2015. The Congressional Budget Office had projected the employer penalty would raise approximately 10 billion in 2015. The delay will mean that the federal government will lose out on that revenue and that some employees who are not eligible for tax credits in the exchanges and don’t have an offer of employer coverage or can’t afford that insurance, could go uninsured. Others could enroll in the exchanges, increasing the size of that population.

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http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/07/02/2250971/administration-to-delay-key-obamacare-provision/

Frankly, I think the most significant aspects of the health care law are the exchanges, the subsidies and the expansion of Medicaid. These are the things that will bring millions of currently uninsured into the system.

Arizona Passes Medicaid Expansion, Giving Jan Brewer A Victory For Obamacare
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023011554

Steve Benen has a good Q&A on the delay:

<...>

Well, maybe. Let's back up and recap what this policy is all about, because I think some of the reactions to the one-year delay have been a little excessive. Maybe it'll be easier to tackle this in Q&A form.

* What's the employer mandate? In practical terms, the policy name is a bit of misnomer -- there is no actual "mandate." Under the Affordable Care Act, businesses with 50 or more full-time employees are told they need to offer health care coverage to their employees, but those who choose not to pay a fairly modest tax penalty. As of last night, that penalty won't kick in, at the earliest, before 2015.

* Won't this mandate discourage those businesses from hiring? It's been an important part of the criticism, but Obamacare extends all kinds of breaks to these employers to help subsidize the insurance and soften the blow of increased costs.

* So is it a good policy or a bad policy? Opinions vary, of course, but plenty of folks, including some center-left health care advocates, have never been crazy about the idea, and see alternative approaches that can help reach the same goal.

* But if the policy is delayed, won't that mean a whole lot of Americans won't get coverage until 2015? The problem is with the "whole lot" part of the question. The vast majority of employers in this category (about 96%) already offer health insurance to their workers, and the delay won't affect them at all. What's more, the delay won't affect the creation of the exchanges, which should help bridge the gap -- folks working for businesses that don't offer coverage will still be eligible for subsidies they can use to buy insurance in their state marketplace.

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http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/07/03/19266626-key-obamacare-provision-delayed-until-2015

[leftstreet]

1. Obamacare: It's Kinda Sorta Single Payer if You're Poor Enough

What a legacy!

[ProSense]

3. Yeah,

"Obamacare: It's Kinda Sorta Single Payer if You're Poor Enough

What a legacy! "

...because helping the "poor enough" is bad?

[PoliticAverse]

2. While employers are switching more people to < 30 hours/week part time

so they aren't covered under the employer penalty provision.

[Ron Obvious]

7. That, and switch to temps and contractors.

I've seen signs of that both trends.

[Puzzledtraveller]

4. Master stroke, BRILLIANT!

[Arctic Dave]

5. Awesome legacy.

Kinda, sorta in a abstract way.

WIN!

[galileoreloaded]

6. hahahahaha. they keep pretending to make laws,

and we keep pretending to follow em! nice!