Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in an e-mailed statement that the delay confirms his party’s argument that “Obamacare costs too much and it isn’t working the way the administration promised.”
The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act allows the Obama administration to set the starting date for the employer coverage reporting requirement that’s the linchpin of the mandate. The administration had not yet announced a date, one of the officials said. Still, enforcement of the mandate had been widely expected to begin in 2014, the official said.
Business Groups
The White House had been in discussions with business groups over complaints about the reporting requirements, and senior officials believe they can simplify the process, the officials said. The administration plans to invite employer groups to discuss ways of simplifying administrative burdens created by the mandate, the officials said.
Most large employers already provide coverage that meets the law’s requirements, the officials said.
The officials said the decision stemmed from a commitment in the administration to reduce regulatory red tape as much as possible and drew parallels to a move earlier this year to cut the length of application forms for insurance provided through government-sponsored exchanges to three pages from 21.
Neil Trautwein, vice president and employee benefits counsel for the National Retail Federation, called the move “an unexpected but extraordinarily wise decision.”
The decision could lead companies to delay their own decisions on whether to offer coverage to all their workers, Trautwein said.
“The administration is certainly encouraging employers to continue and expand offerings,” he said. “We’ll see how that goes.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Mike Dorning in Washington at
mdorning@bloomberg.net; Alex Wayne in Washington at
awayne3@bloomberg.net
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