Small businesses have been able to apply through paper applications since Oct. 1. | REUTERS Small businesses hit with ACA delay

The Obama administration today announced a one year delay of online enrollment for small businesses looking to purchase health coverage through federal Obamacare exchanges, another high-profile setback for HealthCare.gov.

It’s the second delay for online small business enrollment, which the administration had said would begin this month.


The White House is trying to get the troubled enrollment website on track for individuals and families seeking coverage, which is a higher priority. It set this Saturday, Nov. 30, as a target date for getting HealthCare.gov working for the “vast majority” of users.

The delay of the small business exchanges comes as little surprise, as the administration had said earlier this week it would offer alternative ways for small businesses to enroll. Still, it undercuts the White House message that it’s beginning to turn around the disastrous rollout of the health care law.

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The administration is focused on its goal of signing up 7 million through Obamacare exchanges through the individual marketplaces. That doesn’t count on small business enrollment, which is why Obamacare critics and advocates say the small-business exchanges, known as SHOP, are further down on the administration’s priority list.

The announcement just before Thanksgiving is the latest in a series of delays and miscalculations for the president’s signature domestic legislation. On July 2 — also just before a holiday —it delayed the employer mandate for a year. Small businesses with fewer than 50 workers are exempt from the requirement to cover them, and the exchanges are supposed to give more options to those that choose to offer coverage.

House Speaker John Boehner said the delay is more proof that the law should be repealed or delayed.

“The president bit off more than he can chew with this health care law, and small businesses are now forced to bear the consequences,” he said in a statement.

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Small businesses have been able to apply for exchange coverage by paper application since Oct. 1. HHS on Wednesday announced they will have additional ways of enrolling on SHOP, including going through an agent or broker or directly through an insurer.

“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,” according to an HHS notice issued Wednesday afternoon. Those two features are supposed to give workers more choice of health plans, rather than having the business owner select coverage for employees. Those, too, were put on hold earlier this year, as it became clear they were too complicated for the Oct. 1 launch.

The administration originally delayed online enrollment in the federal-run small business exchanges just days before the failed Oct. 1 launch of HealthCare.gov. At the time, HHS said online enrollment would be available “sometime in November.” But now, it won’t be ready until November of next year.

The latest delay applies only to the federal-run SHOP exchanges in almost three dozen states. With a few exceptions, SHOPs in states running their own exchanges have had a smoother rollout.

Small Business Majority, a group that supports the health care law, called today’s announcement “disappointing” but said the exchanges still offer a competitive marketplace to shop for coverage.

“It’s disappointing that the online portion of the federal small business marketplace through Healthcare.gov will be delayed and it’s important it get up and running as soon as possible,” Small Business Majority CEO John Arensmeyer said in a statement. “However, it doesn’t change the fact that the marketplace can offer the most competitive combination of price and quality for small businesses purchasing health insurance,” he said.

House Small Business Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said it’s been apparent for months that the small business enrollment website wasn’t ready to launch.

“Based on the June GAO report on SHOPs readiness that I requested, we knew the administration was not prepared for the implementation, but this pattern of continued delay and disarray is especially disappointing,” Graves said in a statement. “This mismanagement and inadequacy is causing the American people and small business owners to lose trust in their government’s ability to do just about anything.”

Employers, like individuals, will have until Dec. 23 to purchase coverage that takes effect Jan. 1, HHS said on Wednesday. Employers can enroll at any point in the year, though, while the 2014 open enrollment period for individuals is scheduled to end March. 31.

HHS also said it would launch an “improved comparison shopping feature” for small businesses on Dec. 1, the administration’s target date for a better-functioning HealthCare.gov.

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