Penalties Increase For Residents Without Health Care

Yearly Fines Could Be High
The Associated Press, January 1, 2008

BOSTON -- The cost of not having health insurance in Massachusetts has gone up.
As the new year began, most residents who remain uninsured will face yearly fines that could total as much as $912 for individuals and $1,824 for couples by the end of 2008.

That's according to penalty guidelines unveiled by the Department of Revenue.

Individuals who failed to sign up for health insurance by the end of 2007 faced only a one-time loss of their $219 personal income tax exemption.

The fines are part of an increasingly aggressive approach written into the health care law designed to pressure Massachusetts residents into getting insurance.

It remains unclear how many Massachusetts residents still don't have insurance, but the number could be in the hundreds of thousands.

Those overseeing the law say the state has added about 300,000 Massachusetts residents to the ranks of the insured this year.