Obamacare Enrollment: Another Delay For Small Business SHOP Exchanges

The Obama administration is about to face another mess related to the health care law, as it is set to renege on promises made to small business owners to have their health insurance marketplace ready by month’s end.

Politico is reporting that the administration will announce Wednesday a one-year delay of online small-business exchanges after promises were made earlier to have them ready by Nov. 30. What this means is that employers will not have a functioning SHOP exchange and will have to continue processing enrollment coverage offline.

“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,” a notice from the Department of Health and Human Services read, according to Politico.

Alternative methods to the twice-delayed service are expected to be announced.