Healthcare Change

From the BBC:
"US delays introduction of key healthcare provision"

The main provision of a landmark healthcare bill passed under President Barack Obama will take effect one year later than planned, his administration has said. Employers now have until 2015 to extend healthcare benefits to their employees. The move has been seen as a major concession to retailers and other businesses. But it puts off the law's aim of giving coverage to nearly 50 million Americans without health insurance. It also raises questions over whether other elements of the bill will be implemented on schedule, analysts say. Business groups hailed the unexpected decision, saying it would give employers more time to prepare for the changes without having to incur penalties. But it could mean that many Americans remain uninsured. The 2010 Affordable Care Act, sometimes known as Obamacare, requires businesses with more than 50 workers to provide health insurance to all their full-time staff, or pay a series of increasingly severe penalties. From 1 January 2014 companies would have had to pay $2,000 (£1,320) for each uninsured employee, but the measure will now not be introduced until 2015. There is no fine for smaller businesses or for companies with workers who qualify for Medicaid, a government healthcare programme for the poor.

It was expected to have the greatest impact on hotel, restaurant and retail businesses that have many low-paid workers. Some Republicans said the decision was proof that the whole law should be repealed. "The White House seems to slowly be admitting what Americans already know," said Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate. "Obamacare needs to be repealed and replaced with common-sense reforms that actually lower costs for Americans."

^ It does sound a little like what the TSA just did. The TSA first said that they would allow small knives on planes. The American people complained loudly against it and then the TSA said they were going to move the date of when knives would be allowed and finally they announced that no knives would be allowed. This could be a first-step in delaying or repealing Obamacare (one can hope.) Maybe Obama and the Democrats are finally starting to realize that while health care in the US desperately needs to be fixed it can't be done under the current Obamacare provisions. Obamacare merely adds millions of people to an already crumbling system and does little to actually fix the system. ^

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23156568