Earlier this week the Obama administration announced that, the employer mandate–a key component of the Affordable Care Act that fines businesses with more than 50 employees up to $3,000 per uninsured worker–will be postponed until January 2015.
Businesses with under 50 employees were already exempt from the penalty.
According to the statement by the Treasury Department, the delay is designed to meet two goals:
First, it will allow us to consider ways to simplify the new reporting requirements consistent with the law. Second, it will provide time to adapt health coverage and reporting systems while employers are moving toward making health coverage affordable and accessible for their employees.
Within the next week, we will publish formal guidance describing this transition. Just like the Administration’s effort to turn the initial 21-page application for health insurance into a three-page application, we are working hard to adapt and to be flexible about reporting requirements as we implement the law.
According to news reports, the delay of this component will not affect the individual mandate or the insurance exchanges which are set to come on stream in October later this year.
The mandate should have taken effect in January 2014.
