Move Targets Small to Medium Companies
The Obama Administration announced on Monday
that it is again delaying the implementation of part of the Obamacare employer
mandate. Businesses with between 50 and 99 employees will now have until 2016, pushed a year from the 2015 deadline,
to offer health coverage to their employees. The move is
the latest in a series of delays and problems for the President’s signature legislation.
Many news organizations suggested that the move was political; under the
previous 2015 deadline, business owners would be attempting to deal with the mandate
just as voters were going to the polls for the 2014 elections.
In response to
the delay, Amanda Austin, NFIB’s Director of Federal Public Policy, said, “It
doesn’t always feel good to be right. Every time small business owners hear
about another delay or random rewrite of the rules under this law, they are
shaking their heads and thinking ‘we told you so.’ Today’s news is simply the
latest indicator that this law is not ready for prime-time and has systemic
flaws that need to be corrected permanently. Temporary delays are not enough.”
Further Reading:
The Washington
Post, Bloomberg
News, McClatchy and the AP all provide coverage of the move. NFIB also provides a comprehensive
guide to what Obamacare means to small businesses.
