Health law small business insurance shopping site delayed for 1 year

CHICAGO – President Barack Obama’s administration has announced yet another delay in the rollout of the health care law. An online health insurance marketplace for small businesses is being put off until November 2014 to make sure the HealthCare.gov website gets fixed first.

According to an internal administration document obtained by The Associated Press, employers who want to buy marketplace plans for their workers now will need to go through an agent, broker or insurance company. The administration says the plan will allow small businesses to buy coverage, without slowing technical repairs to the hobbled federal site.

The marketplace was supposed to provide small businesses a new way to shop for coverage.

It’s the latest in a stream of missed deadlines, including a postponement for a Spanish sign-up tool announced this week.

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