On Oct. 7, 2015, President Obama signed the H. R. 1624,Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees (PACE), Act into law.
States are no longer required to expand their small group market to include businesses with up to 100 employees.
The PACE Act repeals the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirement that the small group market in every state be expanded to include businesses with 51-100 employees.
Most states have historically defined “small employers” as those with 50 or fewer employees for purposes of defining their small group health insurance market. Effective for 2016 plan years, the ACA expanded the definition of a “small employer” to include those that employed an average of between one and 100 employees.
The PACE Act eliminates the ACA’s new definition and, instead, gives states the option of expanding their small group markets to include businesses with up to 100 employees.