Shame on Commonwealth Connector and shame on the State of Massachusetts for making being uninsured a CRIME!

Norma –
It’s not a crime; it’s an extra tax payment. Doesn’t go on your permanent record.

So Norma – did you have to pay? Or were you exempt based on the affordability schedule? Or did you file an appeal? We’d like to know.

The state has already made it a crime to drive a vehicle while uninsured… so it makes sense that as a matter of public policy and for our own good (and especially our children’s!), the state use of all of the powers it has at its disposal to keep us healthy.

Health Reform Watcher,
The way the Schedule HC is worded my husbands Social Securty was not added which lowered our income in half,I was forced to fill out a MassHealth App. against my will so I would not be fined because the Commonwealth Connector adds all income which made me exempt.This is so convoluted nobody can understand the tax forms.My daughter in-law is a tax accountant and she was confused.At this point I recieved a letter stating because of the affordability schedule I would not be fined but this has been pretty awful for alot of us.What about the people being fined monthly this year?That makes me feel bad because they really cannot afford the insurance but are being fined anyway.The State does not have to mandate such a mean law especially when people are going broke trying to pay their bills.

Thank you, “Commonhealth” for asking this question, but considering the odds of winning such an appeal (against an State appointed board of 28 lawyers) how many would even bother? What chance does your average Joe or Jane have? The parameters call for the most dire and tragic of circumstances.

http://www.masslegalservices.org/docs/certificate_of_Exemption_.pdf

“Even if the Affordability Schedule says that you can afford health insurance, you may believe that you cannot because you have experienced hardship. If you experienced a hardship during 2007 you may qualify for a waiver of the penalty. The Health Connector Authority oversees the appeals and exemptions process for seeking a waiver of the penalty.

WHAT QUALIFIES AS A HARDSHIP?

A hardship means that, during 2007, you:

- Were homeless, or were more than 30 days overdue in rent or mortgage payments, or received an eviction or foreclosure notice.
- Received a shut-off notice, or were shut off, or were refused the delivery of essential utilities (gas, electric, oil, water, or telephone).
- Had non-cosmetic medical and/or dental out-of-pocket expenses (not including premium
payments), totaling more that 7.5% of your household’s adjusted gross income that were not subject to payment by a third-party.
- Incurred a significant, unexpected increase in basic living expenses resulting directly from the consequences of:
- Domestic violence
- The death of a spouse, family member, or partner with primary responsibility for child
care.
- The sudden responsibility for providing full care for an aging parent or other family
member, including a major, extended illness of a child that requires a working parent to
hire a full-time caretaker for the child.
- A fire, flood, natural disaster, or other unexpected natural or human-caused event
causing substantial household or personal damage.
- Can establish that the expense of purchasing health insurance would have caused you to
experience a serious deprivation of food, shelter, clothing or other necessities.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT QUALIFIES AS A HARDSHIP?
In addition to the criteria listed above, the Connector Authority will also consider whether your family size was so large that reliance on the Affordability Schedule would result in a significant inequity.
Finally, the Connector will consider any other grounds that you claim made you unable to afford to purchase health insurance in 2007″

So unless you have made the headlines because of a tragic 5 alarm fire and are staying on a relative’s couch or are hanging out with the rats, you have to BUY into this – REALLY!!!

And you’d better be ready to PROVE IT, TOO!
(and be aware that this is only for now – you have only a short time to get your life together, or else…)

Please, let’s get real here. A look at REAL LIFE, versus the highly paid, myopic political boardroom blindness, would go a long way.

But this isn’t about real people or real life, it’s about politics, isn’t it? It’s about political ideology from “above”. It has nothing to do with being able to go to the doctor’s with a health problem.

OK, so let also face the fact that most people who look at this website do not fit into the above demographic profiles. What are you expecting from this question?

Please be mindful of the fact that health status and financial status are considered highly personal in our society. Few would go public with such “shame”.

Health Reform Watcher,

First of all, this wasteful and punitive law is not health REFORM so when you are blogging and/or speaking about the MA mandated health insurance, you should remove the word reform from your screen name. The definition of reform is “to make changes for improvement in order to remove abuse and injustices.”

Next: “It’s not a crime, it’s an extra tax payment.” It is a crime on the part of MA for many reasons but in the interest of brevity, I’ll mention only two: It’s a back-door tax but the tax code wasn’t changed. It’s extortion and collusion – or coercion if you like that word better. Coercion is deliberate violence and is inhuman.

As for the exemption and/or hardship appeal: nemcavenia (above) has spelled it out for you. I have only to add that the appeals/exemption process is draconian, labyrinthian and set up to deny.

When such heinous legislation is passed, follow the money trail and check out the revolving-door users. This law is not about people and their health care and never was intended as such. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.

The good news is that it’s failing.

The bad news is that until it actually dies, it is and will continue to seriously hurt 100s of 1000s of residents, and the numbers will increase as more people find they have to drop their coverage because of the skyrocketing cost of living combined with the increases in Commonwealth Care premiums and copays. Nearly 2,000 have already dropped out of Commonwealth Care. Still others will not be able to afford to upgrade their policies to meet the state standards.

And the oh-so-clever Connector – doubling the copays saves the state money by discouraging residents to seek care. Dropping Plan 4 which had the sickest residents who needed lower copays also helps the state money-wise but is detrimental to these patients.

This law is ugly and reminiscent of other heinous acts in history. MA could have done something to be proud of such as enacting a law that provides affordable, equitable, quality health CARE for all instead of strong arming people into purchasing inferior insurance they cannot afford and penalizing the rest of us.

Tim,

“. . . so it makes sense that as a matter of public policy and for our own good (and especially our children’s!), the state use of all of the powers it has at its disposal to keep us healthy.”

This law does not keep us healthy. It has and continues to cause such incredible stress to so many that the opposite is true.

The only things staying healthy under this law are the bank accounts of those at the Connector earning six-figure salaries, insurance company CEOs and certain state powerbrokers.

Oh, I forgot to add this list: our goose-stepping legislators whose salaries we pay along with 80 to 85 percent of their health insurance.

I did not fill out a schedule HC despite the requirement. It was basically designed as a busywork exercise to punish those that did not have health insurance. Not much fun to fill out if you did have health insurance either.

As for appealing the “$219 fine”, it isn’t a fine. It is just a result of losing the personal exemption based on some arbitrary criteria. Under State law the state can put any “reasonable” criteria on an exemption. If you do not meet the threshold requirements for being exempt from needing to have health insurance, then there is really no grounds to appeal it.

Oh and is “Tim” serious? Our bodies should now be insured like a car? Can I have a warranty too? How about I get a free new body if the one I have gets cancer? Or at least a loaner body.

Why isn’t the media calling this what it is: A POOR TAX. If you want socialized Healthcare, truly socialize it. Instead you have created a system that imposes a “fine” on middle and working classes who are powerless to take significant legislative action against it.

Both my partner and I appealed the fine. He got a letter approving his appeal, I got the letter asking me to provide evidence. I simply sent off a letter outlining my 2007 costs and I am anticipating getting the follow-up “fine”.

We both think that if this extortion continues, we’re moving out of Mass. Its clear that this is a place to live only if you belong to the upper and better classes.

Sign me up for the ACLU class-action lawsuit.

The federal government already claims our houses as their property (through curious definitions of “eminent domain”) and forces us to pay rent to live in them. They have already laid claim to our cars. Likewise they already own a greater share of our yearly labour than we do. Why not claim our material bodies belong to the state as well, and so long as they indulge our use of them we must either pay for their maintenance and care, or be fined for damaging government property.

They used to have a similar system to this – I think they called it “serfdom”. It makes sense that they force us to pay for insurance under such circumstances, as a sick slave is an unprofitable slave, and they have already guaranteed and spent loans from China with our present and future goods and labour as collateral, and have borrowed off of and spent trillions of our chiildrens’ and grandchildrens’ earning potential as well. It’s only fitting that this “poor tax” go into effect – our bureaucratic shepherds are simply protecting their material interests, as well as those of their despotic friends overseas.

I’m beginning to get curious as to how long they think this can go on. I understand there is no decent limit to the appetite of pigs, but this latest business (done in the name of aiding the working poor, no less) is quite an impressively callous display of chutzpah even by my overly cynical standards.