The Obama administration announced this week it is delaying part of the employer mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act for a second year, exempting midsize businesses until 2016 and giving big businesses more time to prepare for full coverage.
The National School Transportation Association explained to its members in an email that the Treasury Department said employers with fewer than 100 workers won’t have to provide health care to their workers in 2015. NSTA added that companies with 100 workers or more are receiving a different kind of one-year grace period. Instead of being required in 2015 to offer coverage to 95 percent of their full-time workers, the larger employers can avoid a fine by offering insurance to 70 percent of them next year.
In related news, the House Ways and Means Committee marked up HR 2575 introduced last summer by Rep. Todd Young (R-IN). The bill seeks to repeal the 30-hour definition of full-time employment from ACA. NSTA reported that the Saving America’s Workers Act has the same effect as a bipartisan bill introduced by Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-IL). The bill, HR 2988, or the Forty Hours Is Full Time Act, is a companion measure to a bipartisan bill in the Senate by Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-IN). NSTA said all the bills define a full-time employee as working 40 hours per week.
NSTA noted that three additional Democrats added their support this week to HR 2575, bringing along three other Democrats to support this bill. They are Reps. Jim Matheson (D-UT), Kurt Schrader (D-OR) and Collin Peterson (D-MN).
