Section 1332 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) allows states to obtain waivers to tinker with provisions of Obamacare beginning in 2017.
Depending on how much leeway the federal government will allow, states could drop the individual mandate or employer shared responsibility provision, or as Vermont unsuccessfully tried to do, establish a single-payer health care system.
To qualify for a waiver, states have to show that their tinkering will cover the same number of people (or more) than the federal system and that they won’t increase the federal budget in the process.
A lot of innovation will depend on whether there’s a Democrat or Republican in the White House. The latter would no doubt be more open to waivers — and more open to wholesale revisions of Obamacare.
For the full story on how the Affordable Care Act (ACA, or Obamacare) affects your business, no matter how large or small, please obtain a copy of our comprehensive yet easy-to-follow Affordable Care Act Compliance Kit.