The House of Representatives passed H.R. 1624 on Sept 28th through Voice vote, and this afternoon (10/1) the Senate took action to pass S. 1099 through unanimous consent. The legislation now heads to the White House for President Obama's consideration, and hopefully signature.
The PACE (Protecting Affordable Coverage for Employees) Act repeals the mandated small-group expansion from group of up to 50 employees to group up to 100 employees that was set to go into effect on Jan 1, 2016. The Act gives the states the flexibility to determine the size of their small group market instead of being forced into the national standard under the ACA law. Many felt that this would greatly upset the mid-sized group marketplace by forcing these employer groups to live with smaller group requirements, namely community rating and the inability to 'shop' for rates based on a healthy employee population.