Obamacare Employer Requirements: Effective Date Delayed Till 2015

By Jobs & Hire Staff Reporter | Jul 02, 2013 10:59 PM EDT

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Business owners who are looking into employee health insurance to avoid penalties due to Obamacare can take a short breather as the White House has announced that the due date has been extended until January of 2015.

The new health insurance overhaul requires that all companies with at least 50 employees must provide health insurance to workers. The enrollment exchanges will begin October 1, 2014, allowing business owners to make side-by-side comparisons between different plans before the law takes effect.

The health care law's most complex section will be clarified in an attempt to make the process simpler for employers to report their employees' health care coverage.

The White House announced the change Tuesday after "ongoing discussions with businesses" to "turn the 21 page application for health insurance into a 3 page application."

Senior White House advisor Valerie Jarrett explains further in the announcement, "We have heard the concern that the reporting called for under the law about each worker’s access to and enrollment in health insurance requires new data collection systems and coordination. So we plan to re-vamp and simplify the reporting process. Some of this detailed reporting may be unnecessary for businesses that more than meet the minimum standards in the law. We will convene employers, insurers, and experts to propose a smarter system and, in the interim, suspend reporting for 2014."

As a wise political move, the delay pushes the major issue until after next year's midterm elections, effectively making sure that voters can decide on the issue themselves when the time for decision is clear.

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