The Obama administration is reportedly delaying enforcement of
another aspect of ObamaCare, one that prohibits employers from providing
better health benefits to top executives than those being offered to
regular employees.
According to The New York Times, tax officials said they would not enforce the provision in 2014 as they had not yet issued the appropriate regulations.
The Affordable Care Act, commonly known as ObamaCare, says
employer-sponsored health plans must not discriminate “in favor of
highly compensated individuals” with respect to either eligibility or
benefits, and provides a tax break for employer-sponsored insurance,
while demanding employers not provide better coverage to higher-paid
employees.
Yet Bruce I. Friedland, a spokesman for the I.R.S., told the New York
Times that employers would not have to comply until the agency issued
regulations or other guidance.
Under ObamaCare, an employer that has a fully insured health plan
that discriminates in favor of high-paid executives could face a steep
penalty: a tax of $100 a day for each individual affected negatively.
Among the issues holding up the implementation of regulations,
according to the Times, are how to measure the value of employee health
benefits, how to define "highly compensated" and what exactly
constitutes discrimination against less-paid employees.
As a result, the Times reports, officials have decided to review the
existing nondiscrimination rules for self-insured companies, even as
they try to write new rules for employers that buy commercial health
insurance.
“Under the Affordable Care Act, for the first time all group health
plans will be prohibited from offering coverage only to their highest
paid employees. The Departments of HHS, Labor and the Treasury are
working on rules that will implement this requirement of the ACA, taking
into account public comments that were previously requested,” Erin
Donar, a spokesperson for the Treasury told Fox News in a statement
Saturday evening.
“As we continue this work, employers still have the same incentives
they always have had to offer coverage to their employees as part of a
competitive compensation package, and will have additional incentives
under the Affordable Care Act starting this year and next.”
The enforcement delay is the latest in a list of deadline extensions
and exemptions to the controversial law by the Obama administration to
minimize disruption from the new health care law, which is sure to play
in key role in this year’s midterm elections.
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