Linda Young - Staff Writer All Headline News
April 13, 2007 5:37 p.m. EST
Boston, MA - The state of Massachusetts is attempting to solve part of the nation's health care crisis with its new law mandating all its citizens purchase health care insurance. But the state has hit a roadblock to requiring such universal coverage as it grapples with the issue of affordability.
State officials finally defined affordable as between 5 percent to 10 percent of income depending on family size.
On Thursday, state officials decided to exempt 20 percent of the state's uninsured population of 328,000 adults from paying penalties if they don't purchase health insurance after it realized they were too poor to afford any coverage.
That amounts to 1 percent of the state's population the Kaiser Family Foundation said in a statement Friday.
The Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority also voted unanimously on Thursday to give free health care to anyone earning up to 150 percent of the federal poverty level. That is $15,315 for individuals or $20,535 for couples.
It also subsidized premiums for adults who earn up to twice that much, thus lowering premiums for adults who earn up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level. That is $30,630 for singles and $41,070 for couples.
The state approved insurance plans range from a monthly premium of $122 to more than $800, depending on age and income. The lowest cost is for young adults and the highest is for those older than 55. The least expensive premium for a middle-age adult is around $175 per month, USA Today reported Friday.
Any adult who is not exempted by law from having a policy who fails to purchase one will lose a $200 annual state tax exemption.
Many groups had weighed in on what the state's premiums should be, including the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization. In its study of affordability, the group conducted workshops that required participants to fill out detailed monthly budgets to determine how much discretionary income people had left after paying basic monthly bills.
According to a statement on its Web site, the group found that 46.1 percent of those earning up to 300 percent of the Federal Poverty Line would have to go into debt to afford even subsidized health insurance. And 39 percent of those earning from 300 percent to 500 percent of the poverty line could not afford premiums of $380 per month.
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