Early this week, the state is expected to release the number of employers (with 11 or more workers) who have paid a fine, for the first time, for failure to provide health insurance. There have been many predictions about how much the state will raise through the fine, which was estimated at $295 for uninsured each worker.
At the time the bill passed lin April 2006, the fine was expected to raise 45 million dollars.
In October 2006, the Romney administration lowered that expectation to 26 million dollars. Some health care advocacy groups said the number dropped because the Romney administration’s definition of what it means to make a “fair and reasonable contribution” to employer coverage was too lenient. Here’s the regulation; the key section is at the top of page 3.
Earlier this year, the Patrick administration predicted the fine would bring in 24 million dollars.
Some business leaders say that less money from the fine means more employers are providing coverage than predicted…and that’s good news. More on that later this week.
In the meantime, what’s your guess, about either the number of employers who don’t offer coverage, or the amount of money the penalty will raise?
I don’t have a guess.
But no matter, employers are getting away with much smaller contributions than originally intended.
The legislative conference committee expected the employer assessments to start last year. It forecast $45 million for last year, and $36 million for this year. Total: $81 million.
But all of the money collected is for this year.
In addition, the free rider surcharge was supposed to make employers pay if their workers used the free care pool excessively. That was watered down, so employers can get out of the penalty by setting up payroll deductions, and then it was delayed, too. That was supposed to raise $50 million last year and $40 million this year. Total: $90 million.
So now the free rider expectation is zero.
Together, the legislative funding assumptions for the first 2 years was $171 million. Instead, the state will get around $24 million over 2 years.
This was supposed to be paid by leaching employers who shove their benefits costs onto the state (that is, you and me). Instead, we’ll find out soon how much the state is collecting.
The expected employer money the state would be getting would be kinda of nice given the shortfall in Commonwealth Care funding – all of the enrollees, by the way, have no offer of employer coverage.
In my opinion the health care of people should not be with employers.My husband had health insurance and didn’t depending on where he worked. The fact is health insurance is too expensive.The whole country is getting tired of greedy insurance companies.Years ago the government had regulation laws on everything to protect citizens from over charging.The point is health insurance should not be the responsibilty of employers at all.The responsibilty is with the State and Federal Governments and Consumer protection laws that work for the people not the insurance industry.If we had truely affordable insurance we would be in the mess we’re in.Business should not have to shoulder the responsibilty of the governments and people should not have to rely on employers for health insurance.