Small-business rollout for Obamacare postponed for a year

WASHINGTON – Beset by problems with the rollout of the president's health care law, the Obama administration has postponed for at least a year its plans to allow small businesses in many states to use a website to select health insurance plans for their employees.

Officials said they needed to concentrate on fixing the healthcare.gov website that is supposed to allow individual consumers who don't get health benefits at work to sign up for coverage.

The postponement is another major setback for the president's hopes of showcasing how the Affordable Care Act can help consumers and small businesses get health insurance. And political opponents quickly pounced on the latest bad news.

Instead of a website, small employers in about three dozen states that wish to offer their employees coverage will have to go through insurance brokers or deal directly with insurance companies, as many already do. Small businesses that do enroll their employees in health insurance plans that meet new standards in the Affordable Care Act will remain eligible for tax credits provided by the law.

The administration's announcement does not affect businesses in states that are operating their own Obama­care marketplaces, many of which have been successfully enrolling people.

The announcement also does not affect large employers, which were not eligible to use the online system. The vast majority of large businesses already offer health coverage.

Because small businesses in every state can still sign up their workers through brokers or insurers, the lack of an online enrollment system in many states may not have a large, short-term impact on coverage.

"It's another broken promise and more proof this administration's assurances have no credibility," Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said. "This law has been an absolute disaster, leaving us to ask, 'What's next?' "

Several leading business groups also repeated their reservations about the law.

In addition to the small-business marketplace, the Obama administration has delayed other elements of the law, including a one-year hiatus in enforcement of a penalty on large employers that do not provide health coverage. Administration officials said they hoped that a website allowing small employers to shop online would be operational by next November so that employers can select plans for 2015.

"It was important for us to prioritize the functionality that would enable consumers individually to shop and enroll online," said Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is working on the websites.

The agency has been focused for the past two months on rescuing healthcare.gov and meeting Saturday's self-imposed deadline for making the site usable for the "vast majority" of users.

"It's disappointing," said John Arensmeyer, chief executive of Small Business Majority, a business group that has supported the Affordable Care Act. "It's important it get up and running as soon as possible."

Small businesses have long struggled with high health costs and have been less likely than large companies to offer health benefits. Just 57 percent of firms with three to 199 employees offer health insurance, said an annual survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust. By comparison, 99 percent of firms with more than 200 employees have health benefits.

The Affordable Care Act exempts businesses with fewer than 50 employees from a new requirement that employers offer health benefits.

But architects of the law hope several of its provisions will encourage more small employers to begin offering benefits. The law offers tax credits to small businesses with fewer than 25 full-time employees and average wages under $50,000 a year to help those companies offset the cost of health benefits.

The SHOP marketplaces were to be the centerpiece of the law's benefits for small employers, simplifying the often daunting task of picking out a health plan or contracting with a health insurance company.

Some experts believe competition among plans will help drive down prices. And growing numbers of large businesses are turning to similar private insurance marketplaces to control their costs.