http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0405mass-health0405.html
Mass. residents likely to face required health insurance
Julie Appleby USA Today Apr. 5, 2006 12:00 AM
Residents of Massachusetts will be the first in the nation required to carry health insurance, just as motorists in many states are required to carry auto insurance.
After months of debate, state lawmakers approved a bill Tuesday that requires individuals to have coverage and tacks a $295-per-worker annual assessment on employers who don't provide it, with the aim of reducing the state's 550,000 uninsured to nearly zero within three years.
The bill goes to Republican Gov. Mitt Romney. He is expected to sign it because he proposed such a measure last summer.
"It's about 95 percent of what I wanted," he said. "We'll be the only state in America where every citizen has health insurance."
The state will be the only one requiring all individuals who can afford it to purchase insurance.
"That is where they are really pioneers," said Paul Ginsburg, an economist with the Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan research group in Washington. He says the only way to get universal coverage is to require individuals to carry insurance.
Free coverage will be provided to individuals at or below the federal poverty line, which is $9,600 a year, and the state will subsidize coverage for those earning up to three times the federal poverty level.
The Legislature estimated the programs would cost $316 million the first year and up to $1 billion annually by the third year, with all but $125 million annually coming from state and federal funds already earmarked for health care.
"This plan is particularly helpful to lower- and low-middle-income uninsured folks. What's less clear is its assistance to more middle-income uninsured," said John McDonough of Health Care for All, an advocacy group that supports the concept of the plan.
The new subsidized insurance plans are to be available by July. After July 1, 2007, uninsured individuals who refuse to buy coverage could lose their state tax exemption, which is worth about $150 per person. In following years, those who refuse to buy will pay penalties equal to about half of the cost of a health insurance plan.
Insurers have yet to put forward a package of plans that will be available, or the prices. Romney said the premiums will be about $200 a month for a single adult.
Some business groups also say the plan does nothing to contain growing medical costs.
"If you're looking for increased access for the uninsured, this (bill) is a winner," said Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, a statewide trade association of 2,500 retailers and restaurants.
"If you're looking to reduce out-of-sight costs ... particularly (for) small employers, it doesn't accomplish that."