The Obama administration announced yesterday that it is delaying implementation of a provision of the Affordable Care Act that helps small employers offer an assortment of health insurance plans to their employees. In most states, only one health plan will be available on the small-business version of the exchange (also called the SHOP). The administration attributed the delay to “operational challenges”, which is a bureaucratic way of saying “This is a little more complicated than we thought.”

This isn’t the first time that the administration has delayed implementing a provision of the ACA. It has already told states that basic health plans—a program meant to assist individuals who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but may not be able to afford coverage on the Exchange—won’t be available until 2015. The major provisions of the law, like the subsidies and the Medicaid expansion, will still go into effect next year and these delays might not have a significant impact. But news like this provides ample ammunition for the law’s critics who argue that the government isn’t up to the task of regulating health care. The administration may have done the smart thing; better to delay implementation than botch things up and invite even harsher criticism. But these delays make it even more important that the administration and the states implement the rest of the law without mention of “operational challenges”.