Affordable Care Act Law Gets One-Year Reprieve Before Enactment

The Affordable Care Act that was to become effective in January 2014 has been pushed back to a January 1, 2015 deadline. In short, the delay buys employers with 50 or more employees an additional year before they must offer medical coverage to their workers or pay a fine.

The original law that was passed in 2010 required employers with more than 50 employees working 30 or more hours a week to offer suitable health coverage or be penalized by a fine. With the 2014 mandate rapidly approaching, businesses made their voices heard that they needed more time to understand how to comply with new rules written since the plan became law.

Despite the postponement, President Barack Obama’s health care law remains intact with the requirement that individuals get insurance and the subsidies be available to help them pay for it.

Most people will not be affected as the vast majority of Americans already have insurance, including those employed at companies that hover around the 50-employee level.

“Just hiring more staff is not the answer.”

The Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a study that found that 87 percent of companies that employed from 25 to 49 workers last year offered health coverage and that the percentage goes up for bigger businesses.

The study noted that employees should not be impacted by the delay if they are already insured through a job at a large company that already offers insurance; a job at a small company employing fewer than 50 workers, because such companies are exempt from the rules; Medicaid or Medicare, which is not affected by the delay; a private insurance policy, also not affected.

Prior to the postponement, the subject was heavy on IAVM’s VenueNet with a number of members discussing the topic.

“We are monitoring on a monthly basis,” said Joe Floreano, CFE, Rochester Riverside Convention Center. “For us it will increase the number of employees receiving medical from 42 to 150. “The lack of discussion on this is amazing. Just hiring more staff is not the answer.”

Now, for Floreano as well as others, those critical decisions are ones that don’t have to be made today, but still should be planned and under review going forward.