FINANCIAL TIMES: …The announcement by the Treasury puts flesh on the bones of a decision taken in mid-2013 to delay the so-called employer mandate requiring all employers of 50 or more workers to provide health insurance for them.
According to the Treasury, medium-sized employers, with between 50 and 99 staff, will now not have to offer insurance coverage to workers until 2016.
Large companies will also be given more time to meet the act’s requirement that they provide health insurance to 95 per cent of employees; during a transitional period, they will have to provide coverage only to 70 per cent of workers.
Republicans were given extra ammunition in their campaign against the health law last week when the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office cut its estimate for the number of Americans who would be newly insured under the law by 2m, with 1m less on the health insurance exchanges and 1m less through Medicaid, the main health scheme for the poor… (more)
