This afternoon the Obama Administration announced that it would delay implementation and enforcement of the requirement that employers provide health insurance for their employees until 2015. Bloomberg reports:
Businesses won’t be penalized next year if they fail to provide workers health insurance after the Obama administration decided to delay a key requirement under its signature 2010 health-care law.
The government will postpone enforcement of the so-called employer mandate until 2015, the administration said today. 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. . . .
he move may lead some employers to delay providing coverage to workers. . . .
Two Obama administration officials, who discussed the move before the announcement on condition that they not be identified, said the administration decided to wait until 2015 before enforcing the employer mandate in order to simplify reporting requirements and give businesses more time to adjust their health-care coverage.
As the WSJ notes, this decision does not affect the requirement that individuals obtain qualifying health insurance or pay a tax. Further, as The Hill notes, this postpones enforcement of the mandate until after the 2014 elections.
Here are some reactions from Philip Klein, Avik Roy, and Ezra Klein.