Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Mass. Effort in Good Health on 1st Birthday, Pt.1 -- Great compliance rating.

Massachusetts is the first state to require almost all residents to have health insurance coverage. Several sources are giving good report for the monumental venture of provide affordable health insurance to these residents. Mark Hollmer of the Boston Business Journal commends the pioneering project for the public’s high compliance. The project was initially instituted as a bi-partisan effort by Mitt Romney, Ed Kennedy, Michael Leavitt (US Health and Human Services Secretary) and a few other committed leaders back in 2006. Tuesday will be the one-year anniversary for this mandate. Mark drew some official information from the Commonwealth Connector Authority executive director, Jon Kingsdale. One of the major criteria was taxpayer compliance to getting health insurance before year’s end, 2007.  The program scored very well in this criterion with a 99% compliance rating.  The individual penalties for non-compliance have been as much as a $219 loss in personal exemptions. Since the beginning of the program, the number of uninsured adults in Massachusetts has been cut almost in half.  Studies by the state are showing that, percentage-wise, the population without health insurance has gone down from 13% to 7%.

The number of dissenters appealing against this mandate was small – “only a few thousand people”, according to Mr. Kingsdale.  The main targets of the project were those without any health insurance.  The breakdown of this 168,000-person segment was:

•  97,000 residents were considered to be able to buy health insurance.
•  62,000 residents still couldn’t afford it, even with the subsidies due to health problems or insufficient income.
•  9,000 residents were exempted for religious reasons.

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