In yet another setback for Obama's healthcare reform, the administration announced Wednesday that its small businesses online exchange will be delayed for one year, preventing small businesses from buying new plans via HealthCare.gov until November 2014.
The Small Business Health Options Program, or SHOP, which had already suffered delays before, was supposed to give businesses of fewer than 50 employees an easier way to get a more convenient healthcare plan for their employees.
The delay is just the latest in a long string of issues for Obama's healthcare reform. Most notably, HealthCare.gov has been riddled with glitches and bugs since it launced in October.
“We’ve concluded that we can best serve small employers by continuing this offline process while we concentrate on both creating a smoothly functioning online experience in the SHOP Marketplace, and adding key new features, including an employee choice option and premium aggregation services, by November 2014,” read a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services notice, as reported by POLITICO.
The offline process to which the notice refers allows small businesses to apply for exchange coverage by paper, an option they've had since Oct. 1. To facilitate exchanges, the administration also announced Wednesday that companies looking for new coverage can now sign up using an agent or broker, or directly with an insurance company.
The delay affects 36 states where the federal government is in charge of running the health insurance exchange. It does not affect the other 14 states, which manage their own exchanges.
[wp_scm_comment]