Obamacare Mandate Delayed Until 2016 for Firms Under 100 Employees

NARFA News Flash

On February 10, 2013, the Treasury Department released final regulations on the employer mandate rules also known as the “Pay or Play” rules.  Under the proposed rules, employers with 50 or more employees were required to provide their full-time employees – defined as employees working over 30 hours per week – with health insurance.

The final rules provide a gradual phase-in of the employer mandate provisions.  Employers with more than 50, but less than 100 employees will not be subject to any penalties if they fail to provide health insurance to their full-time employees in 2014 and 2015.  This employer mandate will kick in for this in 2016, and barring any future changes, this group will not be subject to penalties until then.

Employers with 100 or more employees also got a break.  Although these employers generally have to comply with the employer mandate beginning 2015, the final rules provide that in 2015 these employers can avoid the penalties for failing to cover all their full-time employees if they offer coverage to at least 70 percent of full-time employees.  That percentage increases to 95 percent in 2016.

Employers under 50 employees have never been subject to the employer mandate.

Here are the Final Regulations Implementing Employer Shared Responsibility Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for 2015 (pdf).