Some of you have asked how the state will know who does and who does not have health insurance. Everyone who files taxes will be asked if they had coverage as of the end of the tax year. So if you expect to comply with the insurance requirement, you have until Dec. 31st (although you probably have to apply at least a couple of weeks before that to have a policy in place on 12/31) You will be asked to verify that you have insurance on this form (draft version) . It is called a “Schedule HC” and will be filed with your state tax return.
If you have private insurance (Blue Cross, Harvard Pilgrim, Tufts, etc.) your insurer will send you a form called a 1099-HC (Health Care) sometime early next year. Here’s a sample of that form. You will use information from the “1099-HC” to fill out the “Schedule HC.”
These are in draft versions of both forms. Instructions for filling out the “Schedule HC” are not out yet. The Department of Revenue is taking coments on the forms at this address… fordp@dor.state.ma.us.
Or just become a Christian Scientist. But be warned that you will be fined if you subsequently pay for any health care out of your own pocket. So, the State will fine you if you change your religion or beliefs… another violation of the Constitution. And talk about a disincentive to keep people away from getting the care they need. Another black mark for an evil law.
this is the United States of America and to extort money from citizens is a crime. look it up
Resist the mandate. This tragic farce can only succeed if we go along like sheep, filling out their forms and buying these worthless policies. Know that by resisting you will have to pay your fine, but it still sends a message. Then let’s take back the government by voting every scoundrel who sold us out to the insurance companies out of office.
“Then let’s take back the government by voting every scoundrel who sold us out to the insurance companies out of office.”
Don’t just vote yourself. Tell everyone you meet what they have done to us and what exactly they are forcing people to pay for. And then tell them how this law got created in secret meetings without transparency in a process that would make Dick Cheney proud. Then tell people that it was all based on a lie, that the Feds didn’t require everyone to have insurance, they were just requiring that the money that was coming in for Medicaid should be spent to subsidize insurance for the poor.
Print out flyers about every representative in your reach and post them on utility poles to tell everyone that these jerks, Republicans and Democrats alike, are a pack of corrupt thieves and that Mitt Romney was a carpet bagger who passed a law that would only take effect after he already fled the State.
I was so disheartened and disgusted to read the title of this entry on a earlier visit to the blog that I could not read the content until now. And now I am furious. Absolutely furious. I am sure that MANY other people are as well.
I opened the links to look at the “Draft DOR documents” and I am outraged beyond words that the so called “leaders” of our Commonwealth have put on this wasteful, intrusive and HARMFUL course of so-called “reform”.
I hardly know where to begin in blasting this infuriating farce of a “reform” law! What we needed is less bureaucracy — bureaucracy impedes cost effectiveness, it impedes people getting the care they need, it impedes the quality of care — and what this law forces down all our throats while taking out of our purses and wallets to pay for it is more and more and more bureaucracy!!!
As a nurse I take very seriously my legal and ethical professional duties to advocate for my patients and for the communities that I serve. as a member of our society I have similar civic and moral obligations.
For these reasons I am obligated to do everything in my power to stop this harmful mandate from rolling out (more apt to say “rolling over”) thousands of people in my community.
The state postcards that were sent out informing individuals of the mandate are already traumatizing many who are trying to live on modest incomes in this state.
Healthcare is an essential safeguard of life and dignity and as such it is an essential human service and a public good. Healthcare most certainly IS NOT A COMMODITY. But this fake reform law tries to treat it as such.
As a state and a nation we can do SO MUCH BETTER THAN THIS; now is the time for the good people of Massachusetts to step up and carry this issue forward. — It is a human rights, a civil rights, and an economic rights issue of urgent concern. — Thank you.
Please visit these websites to learn more about state health reform work that is based on healthcare being for people, not for corporate profits.
http://www.DefendHealth.org
and
http://www.MassCare.org/about
Amen to that Ann, Pat, and Ron We need to Unite and answer nothing! Why are the media TV print or internet not reporting on any of this? I have been writting asking why? but it falls on deaf ears? What is happening in our State? Did the Soviets take over? We MUST vote all out of office!
Is “Schedule HC” the form one uses to claim an exemption from the individual mandate, or is there another form for that?
Hi Dave – the Schedule HC is the way you will claim an exemption for tax purposes. If you want to know if you will be exempt in advance of filing your taxes, you can file for an exemption through the Connector. The form is not out yet, but is supposed to be available by the end of the week. I’ll put the form or the regs (the rules that will determine what the form must say) on the blog when I get it/them.
I hope you are well.
Martha
Thanks Martha
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