Big Business Gets Yet Another Obamacare Delay That Individuals Don’t

"I didn't simply choose to delay this on my own," President Obama reassured the nation about his unilateral decision to delay Obamacare's employer mandate. "This was in consultation with businesses all across the country," he said, as if that made the situation better instead of worse. Obama threw his "consultants" another bone when he decided to delay the reporting requirements the law imposes on employers, also until 2015. The president's generosity toward large corporations will be financed by the American taxpayer. The Congressional Budget Office projects these delays will cost taxpayers another $3 billion in new government spending and reduce federal revenues by $9 billion, for a total increase in the federal debt of $12 billion. Yet the president fails to show the same concern for individual taxpayers. When the House of Representatives, including dozens of Democrats, voted to extend the same break to individuals by delaying Obamacare's individual mandate by one year, President Obama threatened to veto that bill. Bizarrely, he also threatened to veto another bill (approved by an even broader bipartisan majority) that would make legal his illegal delay of the employer mandate.

So perhaps we should not be too surprised now that the New York Times reveals yet another delay the president approved at the behest of big business:

In another setback for President Obama’s health care initiative, the administration has delayed until 2015 a significant consumer protection in the law that limits how much people may have to spend on their own health care.

The limit on out-of-pocket costs, including deductibles and co-payments, was not supposed to exceed $6,350 for an individual and $12,700 for a family. But under a little-noticed ruling, federal officials have granted a one-year grace period to some insurers, allowing them to set higher limits, or no limit at all on some costs, in 2014...

[F]ederal officials said that many insurers and employers needed more time to comply because they used separate companies to help administer major medical coverage and drug benefits, with separate limits on out-of-pocket costs...

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said: “We knew this was an important issue. We had to balance the interests of consumers with the concerns of health plan sponsors and carriers, which told us that their computer systems were not set up to aggregate all of a person’s out-of-pocket costs. They asked for more time to comply.”...

Theodore M. Thompson, a vice president of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, said: “The promise of out-of-pocket limits was one of the main reasons we supported health care reform. So we are disappointed that some plans will be allowed to have multiple out-of-pocket limits in 2014.”

It is a sign of Obamacare's complexity that the Obama administration felt it needed to issue this delay. It is a further sign of the law's complexity that this delay was announced in February, yet is only coming to light now.

It is a sign of how individuals will fare under Obamacare that this is yet another break the administration is offering to big business but not individual Americans. Obamacare imposes these same caps on out-of-pocket exposure on millions of consumers who purchase coverage directly from an insurance company on the "individual" market, and this mandate like all such mandates will increase premiums. But the administration offered to delay this premium hike only for businesses. Why? Because large businesses have resources and lobbyists that ordinary Americans don't have. They can work the system, and the Obama administration is more than willing to buy their silence.

Which isn't to say that employees of large businesses are protected from Obamacare. Delaying this mandate for one year just means workers in exempted firms will feel Obamacare's full wallop until 2015. Unless the president delays them for another year, that is.

Finally, this is a sign, as if more evidence were needed, that Obamacare is not ready for prime time. Congress should repeal it, or at a minimum delay all 2014 provisions until 2015.