The Obama Administration announced today they won’t penalize businesses next year if they fail to provide workers with health insurance. They want to delay this until after the midterm elections.
Bloomberg reported:
Businesses won’t be penalized next year if they fail to provide workers health insurance after the Obama administration decided to delay a key requirement under its signature 2010 health-care law.
The government will postpone enforcement of the so-called employer mandate until 2015, the administration said today. Under the provision, companies with 50 or more workers face a fine of as much as $3,000 per employee if they don’t offer affordable insurance.The move addresses complaints from employer groups to President Barack Obama’s administration about the burden of the law’s reporting requirements. The decision pushes the issue past the 2014 midterm congressional elections, as Republicans have sought to make the health law a symbol of government overreach.
“In our ongoing discussions with businesses we have heard that you need the time to get this right,” Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Obama, said in a White House blog post announcing the decision. “We are listening.”
The move may lead some employers to delay providing coverage to workers. The law’s individual mandate remains in effect, a provision that requires most Americans to carry health insurance.
The Republican Study Committee released this statement following the news today.
Republican Study Committee Chairman Steve Scalise today released the following statement after the Obama administration announced it would delay the implementation of the employer mandate, a key provision of the president’s healthcare law.
“While the President publicly criticizes House Republicans for fighting to repeal Obamacare, he has been privately trying to waive portions of the law for select groups,” Scalise said. “We have been pointing out for years that Obamacare will be a disaster for hard-working families, and today President Obama finally agreed that this law is not ready for prime time by delaying the employer mandate. The president’s decision today is further proof that we need to fully repeal this failed law. We stand ready to work on a bipartisan solution to lower health care costs and fix the real problems without the unworkable mandates and taxes in the President’s health care law.”
