Most Of ObamaCare Delayed Until 2016, The President's Last Year In Office; Tax On Medical Devices About All That Is Left

For newbies, there are three components of ObamaCare:

• the employer mandate (delayed until 2015; today, a further delay)
• the individual mandate (delayed for some; effectively delayed for all)
• taxes on medical devices (who cares)

Regular readers know that I opined that ObamaCare would unravel piece by piece. The employer mandate for large corporations was delayed until 2015. When the webpage rollout faltered, exemptions for individuals were announced. About the only thing left was the mandate for small business (part of the employer mandate/part of the individual mandate depending). No one really cares about taxes on medical devices except a few lobbyists and that portion of ObamaCare is still likely to be repealed or scaled back.

Today, the administration announced a significant portion of ObamaCare would be delayed. It's pretty much all over except for the political theater. Bloomberg is reporting:

Employers with fewer than 100 workers won’t have to provide health insurance until 2016 under Obamacare, as the administration said it would again delay a key requirement of the health law.

Larger firms have to cover at least 70 percent of the workforce starting next year, the Internal Revenue Service said in a rule issued today.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act envisioned as a cornerstone of its expansion of U.S. insurance coverage that employers with 50 or more workers would be required to provide health benefits to their employees. Under pressure from business groups, the Obama administration has weakened that requirement since July, first by delaying enforcement of the mandate until 2015. Many firms will have even more time under the regulation issued today.

2016 is a presidential election year. Anyone wanna bet the delay won't be extended until after the election? Rhetorical. Please don't reply.

Insurance premiums for 2015, to be announced October, 2014, will soar. If you thought they were bad now, you haven't seen anything yet. The insurance companies must be livid. As stated before, my hunch is the president will issue an executive order prior to November, 2014, that insurance premiums for 2015 cannot be raised more than five percent. There's a very good chance the executive order could even do a "Wal-Mart" -- require a rollback in premiums for 2015, promising the insurance companies that the government would make up the difference.