ACA employer mandate delayed; tiny number of CT employers affected

Only 3% of CT employers with over 50 workers don’t offer health benefits; nationally 4.3% don’t. Despite this on Tuesday, out of concern for the economy and paperwork burdens, the IRS announced they will delay for a year implementation of the health reform requirement that employers with over 50 workers offer health coverage to workers. This means that the 616 affected businesses in CT that don’t offer coverage will be exempt from the standard that the other 19,920 affected CT businesses already meet. Reform was supposed to be a delicate balance of “shared responsibility”. But while employers get another year to comply, and our state insurance exchange wants 3 to 5 years to fully implement their project, consumers will still be subject to the individual mandate this January 1^st. We are awaiting details about how this will affect consumers and eligibility for subsidies in the exchange and, later, to see how the delay affects the ongoing erosion of employer-sponsored health benefits that the mandate was meant to address.