Obamacare employer mandate pushed back a year to 2015
Jul 2, 2013, 3:38pm MST Updated: Jul 2, 2013, 4:22pm MST
The Obama
Administration is giving businesses an extra year to comply with the employer
mandate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
A blog on the U.S. Department of the Treasury
website says the treasury department will publish formal guidance describing
the transition.
“During this
2014 transition period, we strongly encourage employers to maintain or expand
health coverage,” Mark J. Mazur, assistant secretary for tax policy
at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, said in his blog on the treasury
department’s website. “Also, our actions today do not affect employees’ access
to the premium tax credits available under the ACA (nor any other provision of
the ACA).”
Henry GrosJean, a small business insurance broker
in Phoenix, said the move could be politically motivated.
"You have
to wonder if they are listening to business concerns or are “listening” for the
mid-term election," he said.
John Balitis, director at the Fennemore Craig law
firm in Phoenix, said there are practical and political reasons to delay
implementing the mandate in the Affordable Care Act.
"From a
practical standpoint, many businesses are finding it difficult to come to grips
with the complexity of the act, and the administration may believe it's
important to provide more regulatory guidance for reporting and compliance
purposes to ease these frustrations," Balitis said. "From a political
standpoint, the consequences to employers that do not now offer but will have
to provide coverage under the Act may be a concern. The sense is that coverage
options will be more costly than initially anticipated, and there may be a
desire to avoid stories and statistics about layoffs due to the mandate in the
run-up to mid-term elections."
Senior Reporter- Phoenix Business
Journal
OBAMACARE, also known as the, "Affordable Care Act (ACA)", was enacted in 2010 with positive intentions. The end result will show North American companies deciding to send appointment setting, sales, lead generation and customer support jobs offshore to stay competitive or risk going out of business. Many business owners will hire a nearshore employee who is 100% qualified and dedicated for their project.
ReplyDeleteBilingual companies are claiming that their bottom line will increase since ESL call center employees in Costa Rica are as effective as transitional in-house staff for half of the cost. This proven strategy will give small to medium sized companies the option to scale up their BPO staff without getting caught in the Obamacare challenge next year.
Will the delayed start date of OBAMACARE affect the US unemployment rate in 2015? The U.S. healthcare reform is intended to pressure large and small employers through force and taxation. Can it produce the desired results?
http://www.obamacareoutsourcing.com