New paper suggests scrapping the health law's employer mandate

The paper, published by the Urban Institute, makes the case that this requirement will not lead to more people getting coverage because those firms that don't provide it will likely opt for the penalty. Meanwhile, news outlets also report on how the health law has become an earnings' report scapegoat as well as how premium calculations are causing small businesses confusion.    

The Wall Street Journal: Obamacare Question: Ditch Employer Mandate? 
A left-leaning think tank whose research is often taken seriously by backers of the health-care overhaul has published a paper suggesting the administration should scrap the health law's requirement that employers offer coverage or pay a penalty. "Why Don't We Just Get Rid of the Employer Mandate?", by three researchers at the Urban Institute, argues that the requirement won't lead to many more people gaining coverage, since most firms that don't currently offer benefits to all their workers will opt for the penalty, and most firms that already voluntarily offer benefits will want to carry on doing so (Radnofsky, 5/10).

McClatchy: Repealing ACA Employer Mandate Would Not Cause Sharp Hike In Uninsured
New research suggests a contentious component of Obamacare may be more trouble politically than it's actually worth. Repealing the Affordable Care Act's "employer mandate" would eliminate labor market distortions, cut opposition to the health law and leave only 200,000 more Americans without health insurance, according to new research by the Urban Institute, a left-leaning think tank. The mandate requires large businesses with 100 or more workers to provide affordable health insurance for full-time workers or face a penalty of $2,000 per employee beginning in 2015. New rules allow these employers to cover only 70 percent of eligible employees in 2015 and 95 percent in 2016 and beyond (Pugh, 5/9).

CBS News: Meet The New Corporate Earnings Excuse: Obamacare
Obamacare is the new buzzword in first-quarter corporate results, with dozens of businesses either blaming the law for raising costs or, in more hopeful terms, citing it as an opportunity to boost revenues. As of early Friday, the Affordable Care Act has been mentioned in 31 first-quarter earnings calls hosted by companies listed in the Standard & Poor's 500, financial research firm FactSet told CBS MoneyWatch. That's about 7 percent of all the companies listed in the index that had reported results in the latest quarter (Picchi, 5/12).

The Denver Post:  Health Law's Premium Calculation Confounds Some Small Businesses
Two provisions of the Affordable Care Act on small businesses are leading to confusion and increasing rates on younger, healthier workers, according to some small-business leaders. One changes how premiums are calculated based on age and family situation; the other limits how high rates can rise for older employees versus younger ones. Before ACA, insurers typically based premiums on whether workers were being covered as single employees, as employees with spouse or as families. The insurer could also take into account pre-existing conditions (Kane, 5/11).