Obama Makes Wise Choice to Delay Insurance Mandate

July 3 (Bloomberg) -- The Barack Obama administrationshould be commended for delaying implementation of the employermandate under the Affordable Care Act. The delay won’t do muchdamage -- other than perhaps symbolically -- to the effort toexpand insurance coverage, and it allows the administration tofocus on more pressing issues in carrying out the law.

The delay was front-page news across the country. But whatare the actual effects? The mandate requires companies with 50or more employees to provide health insurance or to pay a $2,000to $3,000 penalty for each worker who gets subsidized individualcoverage through the public exchanges created by thelegislation. The administration’s announcement means that nocompany will face this penalty until 2015.