Freeing companies from a U.S. government mandate to offeremployees health care is setting off a chain of events that mayenlarge the pool of uninsured Americans. That may be good forPresident Barack Obama's health-care overhaul.

The success of the 2010 Affordable Care Act is largely dependenton how many people are willing to buy subsidized health plansthrough government exchanges. Most of the people affected byObama's decision this month to delay the employer mandate toprovide health care will now be eligible to use the exchanges whenthey open Oct. 1.

The law's creation of state-by-state marketplaces had targetedabout 26 million of the more than 50 million uninsured Americansfor coverage. “A few million” more may now be made eligible by thedelay, said Larry Levitt, senior vice president at the nonprofitKaiser Family Foundation research group.