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Obamacare Employer Mandate Delayed Until After Congressional Elections

Posted by Unknown on from the chocolate-ration-increased dept.

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."

15 of 600 comments (clear)

  1. Oh, look! Just what the economy needs! by FooAtWFU · · Score: 5, Interesting

    More regulatory uncertainty! Yay!

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    The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
    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 Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

      Right. Just like it said the deadline was this year, before...

    3. Re:Oh, look! Just what the economy needs! by cayenne8 · · Score: 5, Insightful
      I dunno if it is that so much as, the sentiment is growing against obamacare in the US as more of it is coming to be implemented, and more people are seeing it for the steaming pile that it is....and how much this will cost the people is the bottom line.

      I think the Dems/Admin want to keep obamacare implementation out of the news by doing this, so as to not risk their congress critters that may be coming up for election.

      The law had some good parts to it...the sections pertaining to pre-existing conditions is good, and I suppose that letting kids stay on their parents insurance till in their 20's "may" be good, although I think most normal "kids" should be well out on their own and supporting themselves by the time they are 20-21.

      But obamacare when it comes into full swing, is going to raise the $$$ of healthcare quite a bit on the young and healthy. It penalizes people that previously had really good benefits at work, making them too $$ for the employers to continue to offer.

      This is what comes from "we have to pass the law first to see what's in it...".

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      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    4. Re:Oh, look! Just what the economy needs! by OakDragon · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

      Well what was it a week ago?

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      Dark Reflection
    5. 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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    6. Re:Oh, look! Just what the economy needs! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The real chief reason is the democrats don't want to lose their asses in the next election when people finally figure out what a cluster fuck the health care bill is and how for many of the current people who HAVE health care already it will mean more money out of their pockets for worse coverage.

    7. Re:Oh, look! Just what the economy needs! by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The reason it's a steaming pile of shit is because you Americans are so afraid of the word "socialism" that you will implement the most ghastly, awkard and expensive medical systems simply because you're afraid that Jesus will puke in his cornflakes if you simply go to a universal system.

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      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    8. Re:Oh, look! Just what the economy needs! by Sponge+Bath · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Simply go to a universal system" would mean higher cost for worse coverage, just like in UK. NHS costs about $5K a year per taxpayer.

      Here is a better way of looking at it. Annual costs: US = $8233 per citizen (84% coverage), UK = $3433 per citizen (total coverage). Your "higher cost for worse coverage" is completely wrong and quoting cost per taxpayer is not an informative way to look at it.

    9. 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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      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    10. Re:Oh, look! Just what the economy needs! by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The NHS is a wreck for a lot of reasons. And really, it's a hybrid system, still allowing private health care in a limited form. Look to Germany, which has a universal system and manages it very well.

      And as to standards of care, well the problem in the US is that the standard of care is directly proportional to the kind of insurance you can afford. If you don't have good health insurance, or even health insurance at all, and you have a major medical crisis, you're in real trouble.

      I'm a Canadian, and while our system has its flaws, my experience with it has been very good. In 2006, my wife was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, had to have two surgeries, the lost one being a total thyroidectomy. My income was limited, we had two kids in grade school, and by the time of her second surgery the business I worked for had went under. We were able to keep our house (though finances were very stretched as I was on unemployment) and our credit rating and thus within a year or two, with a new job, we were able to deal with remaining debts incurred. In other words, a disease that may very well have proven ruinous in the United States was, in the Canadian universal system, not only survivable from a health point of view, but also a financial point of view.

      I make a lot more money now than I did seven years ago, and I suppose on a purely short-sighted selfish level I can grump about the amount of my taxes on top of premiums that I pay for health coverage, but having come out of a major medical crisis with my finances intact and without being saddled with a vast mortgage just to pay the bills, I can safely say even if the system cost me twice as much a month as it does now, I'd stick with the universal system any day of the week.

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      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  2. Chicago style politics at it's worst... by Temkin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Conveniently after the mid-term elections, where frustration with this trainwreck might reflect badly on those in power... One Turkish professor said "He talks like the president of the ACLU, and governs like Dick Cheney."

  3. Re:This'll take awhile for people to accept by Temkin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yea, we'll get used to having beurecrats make decisions regarding our famililies heathcare. I mean, having the IRS target the businesses of political opponents is nothing compared to denying Grandma her hip replacement because you voted for the wrong candidate.

  4. Employers already know the loophole by punker · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They don't have to pay the fine, or provide insurance. They just make their employees part timers.

    I've seen some anecdotal evidence of this (from waitstaff at a couple different restaurants, security guards at my parking deck, blog posts). Unskilled labor positions (i.e. the people that were targeted to receive this benefit) are just having their hours cut to 30 hours/week because part time employees are not subject to the insurance requirement. With current employment trends, it's easy to hire some extra part timers to fill the gap. It's a non-issue for skilled laborers, because most already receive employer provided insurance.

    The real problem here is this law was intended to require a benefit (i.e. minimum compensation) for people who do not generally receive it already. So now, not only will they not get insurance, but they're also facing a 25% cut in income.

  5. Re:Fucking politicians... by Seumas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You're only now thinking that Obama is just as bad?

    The rest of us were telling you that bad during the first election. And guess what? The next guy isn't going to be much better -- regardless of whether he's Mr. Red State or Mr. Blue State. Might even be worse. Unfortunately, these rah-rah Reddit teenagers that get little baby chubbies in their pants as soon as they're old enough to vote, because "if we just vote Obama/Romney/Whoever this time, we will finally make a change to the world because this will totally be different than the past 230 years!" keep coming in thinking shit is just on the verge of turning around. Naive idiots.