Health Reform: Weighing Up the Employer Mandate
July 26, 2010 – 9:32 pmOf all the aspects of the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that critics fiercely object to, few generate more ire than the mandates. The health-reform law's individual mandate — requiring every legal U.S. resident to carry Texas health insurance (with some limited exceptions) — has prompted a multistate lawsuit challenging its constitutionality, while the requirement that employers with 50 or more employees provide coverage to workers or pay a stiff fine is despised by business groups. The Chamber of Commerce is warning that the new rule, which will go into effect in 2014, will force companies to drop coverage or go out of business altogether. It's the "job-killing employer mandate," in the words of Republican Senator Orrin Hatch. Critics say the employer mandate will eliminate the flexibility employers have now to structure benefits — the Affordable Care Act sets a minimum baseline of coverage and minimum employer contributions to ...