ObamaCare employer mandate delayed for some businesses

The Obama administration announced today another implementation delay of the calamitous law. Today, the administration announced an additional one-year delay of the employer mandate on some firms. Under the law’s employer mandate, employers with 50 or more full-time employees or full-time equivalents are required to offer “qualified and affordable” health insurance coverage to their employees....

The Obama administration announced today another implementation delay of the calamitous law. Today, the administration announced an additional one-year delay of the employer mandate on some firms.

Under the law’s employer mandate, employers with 50 or more full-time employees or full-time equivalents are required to offer “qualified and affordable” health insurance coverage to their employees. This provision of the law was supposed to go into effect Jan. 1, 2014, but was delayed this past summer for one year by the Obama administration. Today, the administration announced an additional one-year delay for firms with 50-99 full-time or full-time equivalent employees.

Firms with 100 or more employees will be required to cover at least 70 percent of their employees with coverage beginning on Jan. 1, 2015. The question now becomes: Why delay implementation for one year? Rather than granting a yearlong reprieve, lawmakers should take it upon themselves to repeal – at a minimum – this provision of the law.

This delay is welcome news for Illinois. Not only is the state expected to be among the slowest in job creation this year, but Illinois also is in the midst of a fiscal crisis and consistently has an unemployment rate above the national average.

Even if one believes that this delay reflects a sincere desire to provide flexibility to the nation’s employers, one has to wonder why the individual mandate, which required individuals to purchase health insurance by Jan. 1 or pay a fine, remains unaffected.