The Obama Administration has partially delayed the employer mandate for the second time. The employer mandate requires employers to provide coverage for 95% of their employees or pay a $2000 fine beyond the first 30 employees. This mandate will now be postponed until 2016. Unfortunately, this delay comes after a series of other delays to the law fueling debate about whether America was ready for the health reform policy.
Under the revisions, the employer mandate will not impact employers of 50-100 full time equivalent employees until 2016. The administration believes that this phase-in” period is a “crucial part of the law [that is] necessary to help businesses adapt to the new requirement.” Their goal is to make the process simpler for the the people that are
subject to the provisions (less than 96% of businesses). In addition, they claim that the law has been revised so that employers with 100 or more full time employees will have to provide coverage to 70% of their full time equivalent employees in 2015 and 95% in 2016.
This law was originally a result of the concern from the administration that businesses will drop coverage for their employees once subsidies are offered to individuals through the exchange. This would place the burden of health care costs primarily on the government. However, after a series of delays and website issues in regards to the exchange, the primary concern is the effectiveness of the policy.
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