Obama Administration Relaxes Employer Mandate

The moving target that is the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate keeps on moving.

The Treasury Department today issued a rule relaxing important employer requirements under the ACA, foremost among them to postpone the mandate for businesses with between 50 and 99 employees until 2016.

This is the second major postponement of the ACA’s employer mandate: Last summer, the Obama Administration delayed implementation for all qualifying businesses from January 2014 to January 2015.

In addition, the administration today reduced the percentage of employees large employers will have cover from 96 percent to 70 percent until 2016. It also clarified that volunteers will not be counted as full-time employees under the ACA.

We will report more about these changes in the coming weeks. For now, click here for a rundown of today’s rule from the Washington Post’s Wonkblog.