WMC execuctive: Obamacare delay is ‘stay of execution, not a pardon’

By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON – Kurt Bauer believes most Wisconsin businesses will view the Obama administration’s decision to delay key provisions in the president’s namesake health care law with a mix of relief and dread.

“I think many (businesses) will see this as a stay of execution rather than a pardon,” Bauer, president and CEO of the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, told Wisconsin Reporter Wednesday.

The administration on Tuesday made the surprise announcement it would push back to 2015 an unpopular provision in Obamacare that mandates companies with 50 or more employees to offer health insurance to full-time workers or face a penalty starting at $2,000 per employee.

Bauer contends, as have others, the delay is a “bit of an admittal” of how far behind the administration is in implementing the massive mandate. From a practical and political standpoint, Bauer said, the move makes perfect sense. A recent WMC survey found the No. 1 concern of members is compliance with the Affordable Care Act and its 20,000-plus pages of rules and regulations.

But the delay, said Bauer, simply avoids what promises to be the inevitable complications of the law.

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