The decision of the U.S. government to delay till 2015 President Barack Obama's healthcare reform, which makes it mandatory for all employers to provide health insurance to employees, has delighted many.
According to President Barack Obama's new healthcare reform, all businesses with 50 or more employees have to provide basic health coverage to their full-time employees starting Jan. 1. Businesses that fail to abide by this new law risk facing serious penalties. But medium to large sized businesses breathed a sigh of relief Tuesday when the implementation of this new reform was pushed to 2015.
"This is a wise decision," says Bill Kramer, executive director for national health policy for the Pacific Business Group on Health, according to USA Today report. The Pacific Business Group on Health represents national employers in all 50 states, including General Electric and Wal-Mart.
The delay has received mixed reactions from businesses. While some speculate whether Obama's healthcare reform will be implemented on time, other small businesses who opposed the reform earlier feel that the dates haven't been pushed back further enough. Such business are also hoping to negotiate changes in the reform like providing insurance for only employees who work for more than 40 hours week rather than 30.
Mark Cerminaro, senior vice president of small-business lending company RapidAdvance, says the delay also allows small businesses that were reluctant to expand because of the new mandate, an opportunity to grow. It will give them time to buy insurances for their employees or be in a position to pay the penalties, as the economy is expected to be growing faster by late 2014.
Bigger businesses who offer health insurance to their employees weren't too pleased with the delay as they had already begun the process of complying with the complex new reporting rules.
Mark Mazur, the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for tax policy, said in a government blog that the delay was mainly to "allow us to consider ways to simplify the new reporting requirements consistent with the law", reported Reuters. Mazur assured businesses that a formal set of guidelines will be released sometime this week to better assist employers.
