Here are some excerpts from her article, "Paying the Health Tax in Massachusetts":
My husband retired from IBM about a decade ago, and as we aren't old enough for Medicare we still buy our health insurance through the company. But IBM, with its typical courtesy, informed us recently that we will be fined by the state.We have been warned.
Why? Because Massachusetts requires every resident to have health insurance, and this year, without informing us directly, the state had changed the rules in a way that made our bare-bones policy no longer acceptable. Unless we ponied up for a pricier policy we neither need nor want -- or enrolled in a government-sponsored insurance plan -- we would have to pay $1,000 each year to the state.
...IBM seems like a rock of stability compared to the state of Massachusetts. It's apparent that state health-care policies can change at the whim of politicians in Boston, and we might not be able to adjust to the new rules. The way we figure it, if we sign up for a state-subsidized plan we will be at the mercy of the state.
So we are sticking with our plan and paying the tax. But what bothers me most is that a similar health-care mandate is being proposed in Washington, and some of the same promises that were made here are being made again -- such as that the mandate will never hit middle-class folks with a new tax.
