“We recognize that the vast majority of businesses that will need to do this reporting already provide health insurance to their workers, and we want to make sure it is easy for others to do so.” 
 
 The 2010 Affordable Care Act required employers with more than 50 full-time workers to offer them affordable health insurance starting next year or face fines. “We are on target to open the health insurance marketplace on Oct. 1 where small businesses and ordinary Americans will be able to go to one place to learn about their coverage options and make side-by-side comparisons of each plan’s price and benefits before they make their decision,” Valerie Jarrett, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser and liaison to the business community, wrote on the White House Web site. “Both the administration and Senate Democrats have shown — and continue to show — a willingness to be flexible and work with all interested parties to make sure that implementation of the Affordable Care Act is as beneficial as possible to all involved,” the spokesman, Adam Jentleson, said. Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, called the administration action “a cynical political ploy to delay the coming train wreck associated with Obamacare until after the 2014 elections.” 
 
 And Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, who faces re-election next year in Kentucky, said in a statement, “The fact remains that Obamacare needs to be repealed and replaced with common-sense reforms that actually lower costs for Americans.” At the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has strongly opposed the law, Randy Johnson, senior vice president for labor, immigration and employee benefits, said in a statement, “The administration has finally recognized the obvious — employers need more time and clarification of the rules of the road before implementing the employer mandate.” 
 
 E. Neil Trautwein, a vice president of the National Retail Federation, said the delay “will provide employers and businesses more time to update their health care coverage without threat of arbitrary punishment.” 
 
 Mr. Mazur, the Treasury official, said the delay “will allow us to consider ways to simplify the new reporting requirements consistent with the law.” 
 
 “Second,” he added, “it will provide time to adapt health coverage and reporting systems while employers are moving toward making health coverage affordable and accessible for their employees.” 
 
 Within the next week, Mr. Mazur said, Treasury will issue official guidance to insurers, self-insuring employers and other parties that provide health coverage. “The Chamber has testified numerous times about the problems with the mandate, and we applaud the administration’s step to delay this provision. Formal rules will be proposed this summer, he added, but the administration will encourage employers to comply with the law’s reporting provisions in 2014, as originally mandated. “I hope that this means that employers who have been cutting employees to part-time will now call them back to full-time employment, but regret that the administration is delaying the implementation of an important provision of the ACA,” said Timothy Jost, a law professor at Washington and Lee University and a strong supporter of the healthcare law. “Nothing in the new guidance regarding employer reporting and responsibility will limit individuals’ eligibility for premium tax credits to buy insurance through the marketplaces that open on Oct. 1,” she said.
– ObamaCare is still going into effect in 2014, but one key component of it is being temporarily shelved. The White House today postponed by one year a rule requiring employers to either provide coverage to employees or face hefty fines, reports the Wall Street Journal. The rule will take effect in 2015, instead of 2014. "We have heard concerns about the complexity of the requirements and the need for more time to implement them effectively," writes Treasury official Mark Mazur in a blog post. The Journal explains that while most employers already provide such coverage, restaurants and retail companies in particular—both of which rely on low-wage workers—were resisting. The rule affects businesses with more than 50 workers. The Hill calls the decision "stunning" and says it "represents an enormous victory for businesses that had lobbied against the healthcare law." It also notes that the move pushes back the start of the controversial provision until after the 2014 midterms, which should be good news for vulnerable Democrats. The New York Times reports that other key parts of ObamaCare, including the establishment of "exchanges" where people can buy insurance, will take effect as planned in 2014. But "it will be difficult for officials running the exchanges to know who is entitled to subsidies if they are not able to confirm whether employers are offering insurance to their employees," writes Jackie Calmes.