'operational challenges'

Obama Delays Small Firm Healthcare

Will be enacted in 2015 instead.

The Obama administration has announced a program to provide affordable insurance plans to small businesses will be delayed due to tight deadlines. The law, which would create a new health insurance market for these firms to chose from, was supposed to be enacted in January. But according to officials, it will be pushed back to 2015, citing "operational challenges." As a result, small employers using the market will be offering just a single plan to workers next year. The setback will "prolong and exacerbate health care costs that are crippling 29 million small businesses,” says Louisiana Senator Mary L. Landrieu, chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.