The bill does what health experts say no other state has yet been able to do: provide a mechanism for all of its citizens to obtain health insurance. It accomplishes that in a way that experts say combines several different methods and proposals from across the political spectrum, apportioning the cost among businesses, individuals and the government.” (New York Times )
Within three years, 95% of the state’s uninsured will have health coverage under the provisions of the bill! Of course, the biggest political compromise required to get the bill through was the obvious one — it bypasses a single-payor system and perpetuates the historical accident by which health coverage in the US has been largely an employee benefit. The bill establishes a per-employee penalty for any employer that does not provide health insurance for its employees, which as I understand it will subsidize the state free-care pool. Political maneuvering has whittled the size of the penalty down from a proposed $800 to only $295 a year, and Romney (who has line-item veto power on budget measures) says he will excise that provision all together, although that is a line item veto that the legislature will override.
