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April 16, 2006 at 04:00 PM
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney cut several provisions, including a dental benefits provision and a penalty on certain businesses, before signing a major health finance reform bill into law.
The law, created by a bill now known as H.B. 4479, could end up requiring most individuals and most employers with 11 or more employees to have health coverage.
The law also will expand public insurance programs aimed at low-income residents; create new health insurance subsidies to help moderate-income residents buy health coverage; impose a temporary moratorium on the creation of new benefits mandates; help young adults stay on their parents’ health insurance plans; and create a system of penalties and incentives to promote compliance with the insurance purchasing requirements.
Romney, a Republican, vetoed a provision that would have imposed a $295-per-employee fine on businesses with 11 or more full-time employees that fail to provide employee coverage.
The fee is “not necessary to implement or finance health care reform,” Romney says in a document listing the H.B. 4479 provisions that he vetoed.
The law created by H.B. 4479 still includes a “free rider surcharge” section. That section would penalize employers with more than 10 employees that fail to provide health coverage if the employees make heavy use of free care from Massachusetts hospitals. In some cases, the state could make affected employers pay up to 100% of the cost of employees’ care.
