Mass. bill requires health insurance

By Scott Helman, Globe Staff | April 4, 2006

Every Massachusetts resident would be required to have health insurance on July 1, 2007, under a landmark healthcare bill the Legislature could send to Governor Mitt Romney as early as today.

Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts The agreement, unveiled by legislative leaders yesterday, aims to increase coverage in phases over three years to include 90 to 95 percent of the uninsured, through the insurance requirement for individuals, along with a new assessment on employers that don't cover workers and creation of private, subsidized health plans for people who can't afford them on their own.

The 145-page bill is the result of more than four months of occasionally bitter negotiations. It melds ideas from the House, the Senate, and Romney, who put forth competing healthcare plans last year that have often seemed irreconcilable. The bill appears headed for law, given that Romney yesterday called it ''exactly what we'd hoped for."

Romney has been adamantly opposed to a new payroll tax on businesses. But though he stopped short of saying he would sign that facet of the bill yesterday, the governor said he had no major objections to a proposed $295-per-employee charge on employers who don't provide insurance, a component designed to raise about $45 million a year.

Romney said he considered that an assessment or a fee, not a tax. The distinction is important to Romney, who many expect to tout the healthcare plan on the stump as he moves toward a possible presidential run, because he would suffer politically if Republican antitax advocates determine that he supported a tax increase.

House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi and Senate President Robert E. Travaglini, who have been at odds over some aspects of the plan, stood side by side yesterday during a State House press conference and proclaimed the final bill a true compromise reached after many hours of give and take.

''This is a very historic moment in Massachusetts," DiMasi said. ''We will be able to -- in three years, hopefully -- virtually insure every man, woman, and child in this commonwealth."

The House and Senate are both expected to pass the plan today.

The most contentious part of the negotiations had centered on what mandates to include: a requirement on individuals to obtain insurance, on businesses to provide it, or a combination of the two. In the end, DiMasi said, the bill calls on individuals, businesses, and the state and federal governments to do more to bring healthcare to the state's 500,000 to 600,000 uninsured residents.

Legislative leaders say their plan would:

Cover 92,500 people by bringing more people onto MassHealth, the Medicaid program, by expanding eligibility for children and enrolling eligible adults who haven't yet signed up.

Cover an additional 207,500 people by offering free or low-cost private health insurance with sliding-scale premiums.