ACA Automatic Enrollment Mandate Repealed By Bipartisan Budget Act

On Monday, November 2^nd, the President signed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 (BBA).  Some legislators had hoped that a budget deal would at least include a repeal of the controversial 40% excise tax on high-cost health care (the so-called "Cadillac Tax").  However, the BBA left the Affordable Care Act (ACA) largely intact, with the ACA's automatic enrollment mandate being the only casualty.

The ACA added Section 18A to the Fair Labor Standards Act requiring employers with 200 or more full-time employees to automatically enroll new full-time employees in a health benefit plan and to automatically continue coverage during open enrollment.  The statute also required that any full-time employee who was automatically enrolled be given notice and an opportunity to opt-out of the coverage.  Ostensibly, the automatic enrollment requirement was included in the ACA as a way to encourage health coverage (similar to design features allowing automatic enrollment in defined