Bad news for millions of workers who have no employer provided health insurance, the Obama White House is letting their employers out of complying with the Employer Mandate until 2015.
White House delays employer mandate requirement until 2015 health care law until 2015.
By Sarah Kliff
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.
The administration said it would postpone the provision after hearing significant concerns from employers about the challenges of implementing it.
“We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively,” Mark Mazur, Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, wrote in a late Tuesday blog post.
They must be breaking out the champagne at WalMart's corporate headquarters, and at the Chamber of Commerce White House lobbyists' office.
UPDATE:
Valerie Jarrett writes at the White House blog;
We’re Listening to Businesses about the Health Care Law
From the start, this Administration has encouraged an ongoing dialogue with the leaders of our nation’s businesses, large and small. There’s more to do, but working together we’ve helped rebuild our economy.
As we implement this law, we have and will continue to make changes as needed. In our ongoing discussions with businesses we have heard that you need the time to get this right. We are listening. So in response to your concerns, we are making two changes.
First, we are cutting red tape and simplifying the reporting process. We have heard the concern that the reporting called for under the law about each worker’s access to and enrollment in health insurance requires new data collection systems and coordination. So we plan to re-vamp and simplify the reporting process. Some of this detailed reporting may be unnecessary for businesses that more than meet the minimum standards in the law. We will convene employers, insurers, and experts to propose a smarter system and, in the interim, suspend reporting for 2014.
Second, we are giving businesses more time to comply. As we make these changes, we believe we need to give employers more time to comply with the new rules. Since employer responsibility payments can only be assessed based on this new reporting, payments won’t be collected for 2014. This allows employers the time to test the new reporting systems and make any necessary adaptations to their health benefits while staying the course toward making health coverage more affordable and accessible for their workers.
They're listening to business all right, listening to uninsured workers (who apparently will still be subject to the Individual Mandate) not so much.
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