Massachusetts healthcare bill pushes businesses to provide coverage.

Publication: Boston Globe (Boston, MA)

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2004 The Boston Globe

Byline: Scott S. Greenberger

Nov. 30--Smokers would pay an extra 50 cents for a pack of cigarettes in Massachusetts, and Bay State employers would be required to offer healthcare coverage to their workers under legislation unveiled yesterday by a key state senator.

The bill proposed yesterday by Senator Richard T. Moore, cochairman of the Legislature's Committee on Health Care, stakes out ground held by many liberal healthcare advocates, who say that covering everybody in Massachusetts is impossible without spending more money and requiring employers to provide health coverage.

To push businesses to provide coverage, Moore would levy what he calls a "health access assessment" on employers who do not offer health plans to their workers. He also called for state subsidies to help small businesses and low-income people pay for coverage.

"This is a concrete package that will lead to a major expansion in coverage and a lowering...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.