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Tag: healthcare reform

Rudy Giuliani On Obamacare (VIDEO)

“Democrats are scared Obamacare will cost them in 2014 midterms. Obama should “delay the whole thing permanently.”

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told PJ Media that rather than delay the employer mandate in the healthcare law, President Obama should “delay the whole thing permanently.”

Compared to businesses, Giuliani said “private individuals” are going to have a more difficult time coping with the law’s rules and regulations.

“I think he should delay the whole thing permanently. I think it is very strong evidence that the whole bill is flawed. After all, this bill was passed several years ago, right. If you have to delay it in order to implement it, there’s something fundamentally wrong with it,” Giuliani told PJ Media on Capitol Hill.

“I mean, he should also delay the sanctions for individuals. Why are only businesses – in fact, businesses can prepare themselves better than private individuals can so necessarily he should also delay the sanctions for private individuals which means he should delay the whole thing.”

The healthcare law requires businesses with more than 50 full-time employees to provide health insurance for all of their workers or face a penalty of $2,000 per employee.

According to the law, those working over 30 hours per work are considered full-time.

Companies like Darden Restaurants have announced that they are cutting workers’ hours to avoid the added costs of insuring every worker. Some colleges and universities have said they cannot afford to cover every employee, as the law requires, so they have to reduce adjunct faculty members’ hours.

“As you probably know, the Affordable Care Act has redefined full-time employees as those working 30 hours or more per week,” said Community College of Allegheny County President Alex Johnson in an email announcement.

“As a result, the college must adjust hours of some temporary part-time employees and adjuncts to comply with the new legislation’s conception of part-time employment.”

The law also requires every American to purchase health insurance or pay a fine to the IRS.

“I mean, the whole thing was a mistake in the first place. It was a big disaster. It cost the Democrats the elections in 2010. I think they are very frightened it’s going to cost them the elections in 2014 because the bill is totally flawed,” Giuliani told PJ Media.

“When an administration has to hold off a bill like this, it indicates there’s something fundamentally wrong with it.”

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said delaying the mandate until 2015 gives businesses “flexibility” to prepare for the full implementation of the law.

“This was the law. How can they change the law?” said Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, according to The New York Times.

Carney was asked on Wednesday for his response to Harkin suggesting that Obama lacks the authority to halt provisions of the law.

“The fact of the matter is this is not unusual, and it is done — it is — it is evidence of the kind of flexibility and deference to the concerns and interests of, in this case, a small percentage of American businesses with more than 50 employees that you would think Republicans would support, because you know and I know that their concern is not that we delayed the implementation of an aspect of this law, one provision of it; it’s that they want to try everything they can to undermine the implementation of this law,” Carney said.

“People who suggest that there’s anything unusual about the delaying of a deadline in the implementation of a complex and comprehensive law are, you know, deliberately sticking their heads in the sand or are just willfully ignorant about past precedent. It’s just not — it’s not serious.”

Source: PJ Media

House To Vote On Delaying Obamacare’s Individual Mandate

In the House, Republicans will have no problem finding a simple majority to pass legislation that would delay the individual mandate needed to fund the president’s health care reforms.

The GOP spent the last three years voting to repeal Obamacare only to have all of those efforts killed in the Democratically led Senate. But Republicans believe their latest effort has new momentum now that Obama has decided to delay another provision of the law, the employer mandate requiring companies with more than 50 employees to provide health insurance.

The “Fairness for American Families Act,” scheduled for a Wednesday vote, would change the date of implementation of the individual mandate from Dec. 31, 2013, to the same day in 2014.

The mandate requires everyone to either buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the Obama administration’s decision to delay only the employer mandate is “unfair and indefensible.”

The legislation may never get consideration in the Senate, but it will put political pressure on Democrats in both chambers who fear that opposing the bill will make it appear as if they are providing a break to big business but not individuals.

Even though Obama has already announced a delay of the employer mandate based on his own authority. But the House insists that such a crucial change requires congressional approval and lawmakers will take up the “Authority for Mandate Delay Act” that would allow them to vote on whether to authorize an action the president has already authorized.

The bill’s author, Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., said the legislation is required because “only Congress can change the law.”

Source: The Examiner

Obamacare Business Mandate Delay Has Minimal Impact On Implementation of PPACA

Obama Administration announced through two blog posts that a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will be delayed one year. The first blog post was on the Department of Treasury website, that a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), would be delayed until January of 2015. Mark Mazur, assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury Department, in a statement Tuesday that “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. We have listened to your feedback. And we are taking action.”

Click here to read more.

Administration Delays the Employer Mandate––But What About Small Employers?

The administration suddenly announced tonight that the requirement that all employers with 50 or more workers offer health insurance has been delayed until 2015.

If an employer with 50 or more workers did not provide health insurance to their full time workers in 2014, they would have been subject to a fine of $2,000 per worker. The employer would have also been subject to a $3,000 fine for each worker that went to the insurance exchanges if the employer package was not affordable.

Why did the administration delay the large employer mandate?

Because many employers have been in the early stages of planning to cut back the hours of workers in order to avoid having to offer insurance to those customarily considered part time, those who work at least the 30 hours per week the law established for defining a full time worker––and they haven’t been bashful in telling their employees why. In addition, there has been growing evidence that some employers were holding back on hiring in order to avoid more of the mandate costs at a time of high unemployment.

Click   here to read more.