Last Tuesday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced it would give companies with more than 50 full-time workers more time to understand the requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) before implementing penalties for businesses that do not provide health insurance to employees.
In her report on this development, The Baltimore Sun‘s Andrea K. Walker cites analysis by The Hilltop Institute at UMBC, published last year, which found that delaying the employer mandate would affect about 10,000 people in Maryland. As individuals would still be required to buy insurance by Jan. 1 or face a $95 penalty, that report predicted around 5,000 would enroll as individuals through the state insurance exchange established under the ACA. Another 5,000 would remain uninsured. WYPR’s Maryland Morning also cites this finding in today’s segment “How the Health Care Law is Affecting Maryland’s Small(ish) Businesses.”
The WebMD Health News story “Maryland Delays Small-Business Enrollment” and Herald-Mail story “Maryland Health Connection to assist families, small businesses in comparing health insurance options” cite related figures.
