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Obamacare Employer Mandate Delayed Until After Congressional Elections

theodp writes "If you hoped your employer would finally provide health insurance in 2014, take two aspirin and call your doctor in the morning — the morning of January 1st, 2015. The Obama administration will delay a crucial provision of its signature health-care law until 2015, 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 Tuesday. 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."

5 of 600 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Oh, look! Just what the economy needs! by Enry · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not sure where the uncertainty is. Says right there - January 1, 2015.

    Not that having the elections matter about implementation. Obama isn't going to let a veto go through, and even if the Senate flips, there's going to be no way that there's enough votes to override a veto. Obamacare is here, get used to it.

  2. Re:Oh, look! Just what the economy needs! by jeffmeden · · Score: 4, Informative

    Maybe they did realize that during this tough economic time (that will probably go on forever since we only consume and don't actually produce anything) it might be a bad thing to force businesses to offer health insurance that is rapidly rising..

    Our company only employees 22 people and we provide health insurance that costs us somewhere in the neighborhood of 75k/year.. Having gone up about 20% since obama care passed.

    $3400 a person for health care is pretty f'ing cheap. Most employers spend 8,000 to 10,000 per employee (not including what the employee contributes out of their salary).

  3. Re:Oh, look! Just what the economy needs! by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Informative

    Having gone up about 20% since obama care passed.

    And how much did it go up in the years before obamacare was passed?
    Sounds like we were seeing double-digit inflation in health care insurance costs most years in the decade prior to obamacare's passage.

    http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2009-09-15-insurance-costs_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

    Seems like the rate of inflation in health care insurance is slowing to a historically low level of 4.5%:
    http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2013/07/02/5-easy-ways-to-reduce-your-health-care-costs/

    YMMV, but nationwide the trend is getting better not worse.

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  4. Re:Oh, look! Just what the economy needs! by cold+fjord · · Score: 5, Informative

    5 painful health-care lessons from Massachusetts - June 16, 2010
    Massachusetts struggles to rein in health care costs - Apr 30, 2011

    It’s a serious problem: Massachusetts boasts that 98 percent of its residents have health insurance, but the state is stricken by the highest health care costs in the country.

    Danger ahead? Massachusetts health costs are rising – fast. - February 9, 2013
    Massachusetts health care costs out of control as ObamaCare provision hits small business - Mar 4, 2013

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  5. Re:Fucking politicians... by lgw · · Score: 4, Informative

    its the most wonderful 'business men'. you know, the 'job creators'. all hail the job creators

    I'm not sure why you mock. It is precisely unemployment fears that have driven this decision. Job creation is something that human employers do, and that's the only source of jobs. There is no job fairy.

    Small businesses usually have employee compensation as their dominant cost. "Making payroll" is by far the chief worry of small business owners. If you raise the cost per employee, the number of employees per small business must fall. In a robust and growing economy you can get away with that - heck if things have been good for a while even small employers likely have some slack to pay workers a bit more. But when the economy has sucked for the past 5 years, there's just no slack to work with.

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