SHOP: Latest Obamacare website delay.

It hasn’t been a good couple of months for the Obamacare tech team. The website and its developers have drawn strong criticism for abysmal performance. A promise to fix it by the end of November now has Secretary Sibelius saying “There’s nothing magical about the December 1 date” (paraphrase).

They moved back the open enrollment deadline for NEXT YEAR in an obvious attempt to get EVEN HIGHER RATE INCREASES and voter wrath delayed until after the mid-term elections.

And now, this. SHOP (the small business health insurance tool) will not have web functionality until November 2014. A whole year delay. That’s interesting because unlike consumers, who can only buy insurance during open enrollment periods, businesses can buy insurance ANY TIME THEY WANT.
Politico: SHOP enrollment delayed by one year
Huffington Post: Small business exchange delayed a year

So, why a whole year delay? Good news, we’re back online in September? See, we beat our self-imposed deadline by a month! OR are they afraid the “real” date won’t be until 2015?

Either way, businesses aren’t chomping at the bit to ADD huge new expenses in a prolonged downturn with still-too-high unemployment and economic uncertainty--thanks to... wait for it... Obamacare.

The administration celebrates as tens of thousands sign up, while forcing millions to loose coverage, in spite of direct and repeated assurances of the opposite. Could it be that, so far, Obamacare has caused far more problems than it has solved?

Your best bet is STILL to use a broker!! Same thing as before the magical rollout of Obamacare. A broker can help you compare Obamacare rates and apply this year using, get this, a paper application! A broker can also help compare non-Obamacare rates, something the website CAN’T do and WON’T do, even next year. Why limit your choices?

If you use the right broker, your small business can choose from programs that offer:

    > Tax-advantaged medical IRAs
        Health Savings Accounts for employees
        Health Reimbursement Account for employers
        Available to any size employer

    > Partial self-funding
        Potentially HUGE refunds of excess premiums
        The only way to recoup smoker-penalty rates (in states like California)

These tools were quite helpful in recent times. They are now even more important in that they allow you to have more options and reduced cost.