The Obama administration postpones employer mandate requirement for Obamacare until 2015
July 2, 2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The Obama administration will not penalize businesses that do not provide health insurance in 2014, the Treasury Department announced Tuesday.
Instead, it will delay enforcement of a major Affordable Care Act requirement that all employers with more than 50 employees provide coverage to their workers until 2015.Giving Democrats some breathing room till after the 2014 midterm elections.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., a critic of the law, seized on the delay as a “clear admission” that the law is “unaffordable, unworkable and unpopular.”
“It’s also a cynical political ploy to delay the coming train wreck associated with ObamaCare until after the 2014 elections,” https://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/02/administration-delays-key-obamacare-insurance-mandate/#ixzz2XvtPSSuF
NJ Senate Candidate Steve Lonegan blasted the Obama administration, “Even President Obama and his administration know that Obamacare is a train wreck waiting to happen, and they are afraid of voters rebelling at the ballot box when they see the higher premiums and loss of coverage that result,” Lonegan went on , “Instead of politically motivated delays, we need to repeal Obamacare completely and immediately.”
The administration claims it decided to postpone the provision after hearing significant concerns from employers about the challenges of implementing it. The the individual mandate was left unchanged.
The Affordable Care Act or Obamacare requires all employers with more than 50 full-time workers provide health insurance or pay steep fines. That policy had raised concerns about companies downsizing their workforce or cutting workers’ hours in order to dodge the new mandate.
In delaying the enforcement of that rule, the White House sidesteps those challenges for one year. It is also the second significant interruption for the Affordable Care Act, following a one-year delay on key functions of the small business insurance marketplaces.
These two changes beg the question over whether the administration will be able to put into effect its signature legislative accomplishment on schedule.
