Delay in Obamacare mandate for large businesses not a big deal

It's always entertaining to watch right-wingers try to make an OMG! mountain out of some routine Obama action (or inaction, such as his being proven to have nothing to do with Benghazi talking points or IRS review of tax-exemption applications).

Now the outrage of the day is the Obama administration's decision to delay by one year implementation of the Affordable Care Act mandate that large employers provide health insurance.

Wow. One whole year.

And the decision only affects 1 to 1.5 million workers who are employed by a company with 50 or more workers that doesn't already provide health insurance. Whereas there are almost 50 million people without health insurance in the United States.

A piece by Ezekiel Emanuel, "Obama's Insurance Delay Won't Affect Many" tells the not-very-compelling tale.

On Tuesday, the White House announced that it would delay for another year one provision of the 2010 health care reform act. Larger employers will now have until 2015 before they will have to provide insurance or face penalties. The administration’s explanation is that it is listening to businesses’ concerns about getting their coverage ready in time, and trying to be flexible. But what people are really concerned about is whether this will make a difference in health care coverage and the progress of reform.

The short answer is no.

…Only about 200,000 employers have more than 50 workers. And the vast majority of them — 94 percent or more, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research and Educational Trust — already offer health insurance. Thus, fewer than an estimated 12,000 employers fail to offer health insurance and would be subject to the penalty. That means we’re talking about only maybe 1 or 1.5 million workers.

Certainly, for these workers, having health insurance would be a great benefit. And covering more Americans was a central rationale for the Affordable Care Act.

But not having their employers provide insurance doesn’t mean they have to wait much longer for coverage. In October, thanks to the Affordable Care Act, they will be able to buy insurance on the exchanges. They won’t have to worry about having a pre-existing condition, and they will receive an income-based subsidy to help defray the costs.