President Barack Obama's administration yesterday announced it will delay implementation of the employer mandate portion of the Affordable Care Act by one year.
The mandate dictates employers with more than 50 full-time employees or full-time equivalent employees would be required to provide affordable health insurance or potentially face fines. The provision was scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, 2014, but instead will hit employers Jan. 1, 2015.
Noting the administration has met with business leaders during the past several months, Mark Mazur, the Tresaury's assistant secretary for tax policy, said the delay allows employers more time to prepare for the ACA provisions.
"We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively," Mazur said in a U.S. Treasury Department
blog post. "We recognize that the vast majority of businesses that will need to do this reporting already provide health insurance to their workers, and we want to make sure it is easy for others to do so."
On the White House
blog, Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement, said employers have taken concern with the reporting aspect requiring them to collect information on employees' access to and enrollment in health insurance. Some employers, she said, would require new data collection systems and coordination.
"We plan to revamp 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," Jarrett said in the blog.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Thomas Donohue said the postponement is good news for employers.
"Since the beginning of the health reform debate, the U.S. chamber has consistently stated the employer mandate and other burdensome provisions of 'Obamacare' would be harmful to job creation and economic growth," he said in a statement. "The administration's decision to recognize this fact yesterday and delay the implementation of the employer mandate is welcomed by the business community and will help avoid some serious near-term economic consequences of this law."
Mazur noted no other portions of the ACA would be affected by the employer mandate delay. The law is scheduled to go into full effect at the beginning of next year.
