MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.
ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
Joining me from Boston is NPR's Richard Knox. And, Richard, how would this work, what would the legislation actually do?
RICHARD KNOX: And those who make under 300 percent of the federal poverty level, which is about $48,000 for a family of three, those people would get state subsidies to buy insurance.
SIEGEL: Is it clear that Massachusetts can legally require citizens to do this?
KNOX: Yes, I think so. I mean, I think the legislature has determined that it's constitutional that they can pass a law to require to do that, under these circumstances anyway. They'll do it through the, you know, the state income tax system.
SIEGEL: This describes nearly all the people in Massachusetts. Who are the ones who aren't covered by the law?
KNOX: About five percent of those who are currently uncovered, that's around 30,000 people. The people that wrote the bill assume that there will always be some who fall through the cracks, you know, the recent arrivals or people who don't file taxes, undocumented immigrants and so on. And for them, the states Free Care Pool will pay, but the aim is for the Free Care Pool to shrink drastically as more and more people get insured.
SIEGEL: What happens to a small business, say, in Massachusetts that employs people but does not provide health insurance for them? Would they be required to do so under this law?
SIEGEL: Employers of 11 or more would also have to adopt what's called a cafeteria plan that allows workers to purchase free, purchase healthcare with pre-tax dollars, so that it would be, would be cheaper for them to do.
SIEGEL: Richard, just explain this again to me. If I'm a motorist, the state can see whether or not I have insurance when I register my car. Here it's, for people in Massachusetts, it's going to be something the state sees in their state income tax returns?
KNOX: And if you were not insured and the state deemed that you could afford to buy one of these new affordable insurance policies that the state hopes to create, then you would have to pay a penalty. The first year it wouldn't be much of a penalty, something like, well you'd lose your state personal income tax exemption, which is worked out to something like $80 a year on your taxes.
KNOX: But in the second year and beyond, you'd have to pay, to the state tax agency, 50 percent of the premium of what the state deems an affordable insurance policy. And you know that could be a couple thousand dollars a year.
SIEGEL: Thank you, Richard.
KNOX: You're welcome.
SIEGEL: That's NPR's Richard Knox speaking to us from Boston.
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