Obama Administration Delays Employer Insurance Mandate Penalties Until 2015
Under the Affordable Care Act, many employers are required to provide a government-approved level of health insurance to employees at an “affordable” rate, or else be fined. Those provisions are, by law, supposed to come into full force at the beginning of 2014. However, according to an announcement from Treasury officials yesterday, the executive branch will not enforce the provision until at least 2015.
The Obama administration will delay a crucial provision of its signature health-care law, giving businesses an extra year to comply with a requirement that they provide their workers with insurance.
The government will postpone enforcement of the so-called employer mandate until 2015, after the congressional elections, the administration said yesterday. 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.
We already know that the Affordable Care Act incentivizes small, growing businesses to send new jobs overseas, but it also has affected whether companies hire new employees . . . and whether they fire them.
Forty-one percent of the businesses surveyed [by Gallup] have frozen hiring because of the health-care law known as Obamacare. And almost one-fifth—19 percent— answered “yes” when asked if they had “reduced the number of employees you have in your business as a specific result of the Affordable Care Act.”
The poll was taken by 603 owners whose businesses have under $20 million in annual sales.
Particularly in that light, it’s no wonder the administration delayed the provision. Economically, the law is a fiasco: diverting hiring, delaying hiring, and causing employment cutbacks. Awful. It’s no wonder businesses and unions are mad about the law. Isn’t it clear that the financial well-being of our nation demands that Obamacare be reopened and reconsidered?
