Obamacare: Admin Delays Employer Mandate | Costs Too Much | Train Wreck Happening

by William Warren

Bloomberg News first reported last night, “The Obama administration will delay a crucial provision of its signature health-care law, 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 yesterday. 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. It’s the latest setback for a health-care law that has met resistance from Republicans, who have sought to make the plan a symbol of government overreach.”

CBS News writes, “After months of complaints and backlash, the administration is delaying what's called the ‘employer mandate’ under the Affordable Care Act. The mandate requires companies with more than 50 full-time employees to offer health insurance or pay a $2,000 penalty - but that rule is being suspended for a year until January of 2015. Most U.S. businesses with more than 50 employees already offer insurance, but the smaller, often startup, companies that do not complained loudly about the 21-page application required.”

The AP adds, “Tuesday's action — announced while Obama was traveling back to Washington from his trip to Africa — is sure to anger liberals and labor groups. But it could provide cover for Democratic candidates in next year's congressional elections.”

According to The Washington Post, “The newly delayed mandate has been a major point of contention for small business owners and lobbyists since it was approved as part of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Many warned that it would cause administrative nightmares for small employers and discourage those near the cutline from expanding beyond 50 workers. Meanwhile, some firms have started scaling back their payrolls to get underneath the cap. . . . This latest delay is the most consequential in a series of setbacks for the president’s signature law, which has shown signs of fragility as the initial deadline for full implementation approaches at the end of the year.”

Of course, Bloomberg points out that while the administration is apparently hearing the complaints of businesses, “[t]he individual mandate, a linchpin of the law that requires most Americans to carry health insurance, remains in effect.”

Reacting to the news, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Obamacare costs too much and it isn’t working the way the administration promised. And while the White House seems to slowly be admitting what Americans already know, and what I hear consistently in my travels around Kentucky regarding the regulatory burden on employers, the fact remains that Obamacare needs to be repealed and replaced with common-sense reforms that actually lower costs for Americans."

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) responded to the Obama administration announced the delay implementation of ObamaCare: "The president's health care law is already raising costs and costing jobs. This announcement means even the Obama administration knows the 'train wreck' will only get worse. I hope the administration recognizes the need to release American families from the mandates of this law as well. This is a clear acknowledgment that the law is unworkable, and it underscores the need to repeal the law and replace it with effective, patient-centered reforms."

At The Weekly Standard, Daniel Halper catches a brutal bit of analysis from CBS political director John Dickerson. He said, “As a political matter, this is not good. . . . It sort of contributes to the feeling that the Affordable Care Act is a jalopy they're trying to roll out of the driveway at barely operational for the president. So that's not good. The White House made the decision, though, take the pain now before the July 4th weekend rather than have all of these stories over the next year of companies that were laying off workers or having such a hard time implementing this.” Of course there have already been months of stories upon stories of companies cutting hours or laying off employees because of the mandates in Obamacare.

Writing in ABC News’ The Note this morning, Rick Klein observes, “Who would have guessed that the most damaging blow to the Obama health care law would come from inside the Obama administration? The pre-holiday announcement undercuts cavalier assurances that the law is ready to be implemented; one announcement that three years haven’t been enough to get a piece of it done within another six months takes care of that. Yes, this is listening to business concerns, and yes, it conveniently means any electoral fallout from an implemented law will be delayed for another president to deal with. But this is a blow in every conceivable way to the Obama administration – an admission that its signature legislative accomplishment isn’t ready for prime time, just as the law’s critics have been arguing, and arguing.”

And in this light, it’s instructive to look at some recent statements about this unpopular law by its supporters. Just a few weeks ago, referring to Obamacare, President Obama declared, “I think it's important for us to recognize and acknowledge this is working the way it's supposed to.” Politico reported last week that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius “told lawmakers not to worry when they read media accounts about people losing their health coverage” and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who strong-armed the bill through Congress as speaker, insisted, “The implementation of this is fabulous.”

But yesterday’s decision makes clear that none of this is the case. As ABC’s Jeff Zeleny put it, “The administration’s decision to delay until 2015 the mandate for big employers validates an argument critics have been making for years: Obamacare was misguided and is collapsing under its own weight.”

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