Smaller businesses get another break from Obamacare mandate
If you thought delaying the employer mandate until 2015 was a relief, wait until you see what the Obama Administration’s done now.
It has essentially decided to veer off course from that delay.
Instead, the administration’s decided to implement a new two-phase installation of the mandate, which will eventually require all employers with 50 or more “full-time equivalent” employees to provide “affordable” health insurance to 95% of those employees or pay federal penalties.
The new phase-in looks like this:
- Part 1 — Employers with at least 100 full-time employees will be able to avoid federal penalties if they offer affordable coverage to at least 70% — a change from 95% — of those workers by Jan. 1, 2015. The 95% requirement has been pushed back to the start of 2016.
- Part 2 — Employers with between 50 and 99 full-time employees will now be required to offer affordable coverage to 95% of those workers by Jan. 1, 2016 — a delay from 2015 — to avoid federal penalties.
As you can see, this gives medium-sized businesses yet another year to prepare for compliance.
The new rules, which were issued by the IRS and are slated to be published in the Federal Register in the coming days, caught many business groups and Congressional leaders by surprise.
More proof the law isn’t working?
The IRS said the new rules were issued to give businesses more time to come into compliance with the law.
Republicans, however, have a different take. They believe the Obama Administration issued further relief from the mandate in an attempt to defuse criticism of the Affordable Care Act until after the mid-term elections in the fall.
The employer mandate has been getting slammed by business groups and the GOP, even after the initial delay was issued in July.
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