Hope you have a great upcoming week.

Gov. Mitt Romney says Massachusetts can drop its current uninsured rate of 7% to zero with a plan that would require individuals to buy insurance. The three-pronged approach would:

Boost efforts to get 106,000 eligible residents who have not signed up for Medicaid to do so.
Create a program called Commonwealth Care through which people of moderate income and small businesses could buy insurance from private insurers at a special rate. It would not be subsidized by the state. About 204,000 are eligible.

Policies would be offered covering primary care, hospital care, mental health services and prescription drugs, with annual deductibles of $250 to $1,000. Romney’s plan estimates monthly premiums of less than $200 for an individual, well below current premiums in his state of more than $350 a month for small group coverage.

Establish a second program called Safety Net Care for residents with incomes up to 300% of the federal poverty level, which is $28,700 for a single person. Policies would have no annual deductible and would be subsidized by the state, with policyholders paying 1.3% to 5.8% of their income, or $2.30 to $32.31 a week, for an individual plan. About 150,000 people would be eligible.

Once the programs were in place, individual who did not get insurance from their jobs or buy it through one of the programs could lose their personal tax exemption of $3,300 — worth about $175 for an average taxpayer — face withholding of their income tax refund, or if they get medical care, their wages could be garnished for payment.

By Julie Appleby

Also, you might find my earlier comment on Romney interesting….

http://polistrasmill.blogspot.com/2005/09/fathers-sons-georges-mitts.html