Obamacare: Ready, Set . . . WAIT!!

In case you missed it, the Obama administration announced yesterday that it will delay implementation of the employer-mandate under the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare"). As the announcement concedes, there are pending reporting rules that still haven't been published.

Employers will still have the opportunity to voluntarily participate in 2014. The administration hopes this will provide a year's worth of "[r]eal-world testing of reporting systems."

Food for thought: If President Obama can just pick parts of Obamacare and decide, "nah, we're just not gonna do that part this year" - then what's to stop a subsequent president (perhaps a Republican, for example) from deciding, "nah, we're just not gonna do any of it, ever"? This creates unwelcome uncertainty for employers.