In the latest in a series of delays of the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate, the Obama administration has announced that most employers will not be fined next year if they do not offer employees health insurance.
Citing business concerns, the Treasury Department announced that employers with 50 to 99 full-time workers won’t have to comply with the employer mandate until 2016. Under the original mandate, which has now been delayed twice, employers with 50 or more workers were required to provide insurance or pay a fine starting at $2,000 per employee.
In addition, the Treasury Department said businesses with 100 or more full-time workers must now cover only 70% of their full-time workers in 2015, and 95% in 2016 and afterward. The ACA, as passed in 2010, required that 100% be covered, but the latest rule eases the mandate for occupations like volunteer firefighters, teachers, and seasonal employees.
Last July, the Obama administration announced a one-year delay in the employer mandate, through Jan. 1, 2015. With the latest announcement, the mandate has been delayed once again.
In November, the administration delayed for one year the requirement that small businesses sign up for coverage on HealthCare.gov.
The latest change comes one week after the Congressional Budget Office reported that under the law, an estimated 2.5 million people could leave the workforce over the next decade. The CBO report created a furor over the ACA’s impact on the labor market, with Republicans claiming it as proof that the law is a job killer and Democrats asserting that it would give people more flexibility when deciding whether to seek employment.
