Delay of ACA employer mandate will cost $12 billion

According to an Affordable Care Act analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), the decision to delay the ACA employer coverage mandate by one year will cost the federal government about $12 billion over the 10-year period from 2014 to 2023. The largest change is a $10 billion reduction in penalty payments by employers that would have been assessed in 2014 and collected in 2015.

In a letter to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf noted that roughly 1 million fewer people are expected to be enrolled in employment-based coverage in 2014, primarily because of the one-year delay in penalties on employers. About 50% of those individuals are expected to remain uninsured, while the others will likely obtain coverage through the state exchanges or will enroll in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).