On Tuesday, I offered my opening thoughts about the surprise decision by the Obama administration to delay a central element of Obamacare that requires employers to provide insurance the federal government deems acceptable or pay penalties. Over at Cato, Michael Cannon argues that the delay in the employer mandate necessitates a delay in the rest of the law, because of the way it interacts with another core provision.

One of the main ways that President Obama’s health care law plans to expand insurance coverage is by offering subsidies for individuals to purchase insurance on government-run exchanges. There are a number of eligibility requirements attached to the subsidies such as income level and immigration status. But another fundamental requirement is that applicants for federal subsidies must be able to show their employer does not offer health insurance that meets the federal government’s standards for affordability and breadth of benefits. If the employer offers qualifying health insurance, then the worker is not eligible.