PPACA small business insurance market delayed a year
(Excerpt – 4/3/13 Bloomberg) — Small business employees will have to wait a year before they can choose their own medical plans after the Obama administration delayed a part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act intended to provide them with coverage options.
Starting in 2014, workers at companies with fewer than 100 employees were supposed to have been able to choose from a variety of health plans through new small-business insurance marketplaces. They’ll instead wait until at least 2015, according to regulations released by the Department of Health and Human Services.
In the meantime, small-business employees will face a situation similar to what most companies offer, with their employers choosing the coverage. Health insurers will still offer the plans, though they’ll be competing for business from companies, not individuals.
Implementation of employee choice in the program won’t be possible next year because of “operational challenges,” according to an HHS statement, which also states the government heard from insurers and others who were worried that health plans, brokers and companies wouldn’t be able to adjust to the new marketplace, called the Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, in time.
“This transitional policy is intended to provide additional time to prepare for an employee choice model and to increase the stability of the small group market while providing small groups with the benefits of SHOP in 2014,” the administration said.