Senate Approves Healthcare Bill with Individual Mandate

March 1, 2006

Yesterday the Senate passed it's "placeholder" bill to meet federal demands and intended to preserve $385 million in federal funding. The Senate claims it will help over 300,000 to afford health insurance. In a last minute amendment, it included a provision for an individual mandate on obtaining health insurance if the plan is not successful.

The mandate, which Senators said they believe is required to secure the federal waiver, would be triggered in two years if at least 50 percent of the uninsured population did not have health insurance. Another 25 percent of the uninsured would have to obtain insurance in the following year.

The House plans to caucus Thursday, but has no stated intentions of returning in a formal session this week. It doesn't appear the House will take up any health insurance expansion bill this week. "We're coming very, very close to a drop dead date, but I don't think it's tomorrow," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) told the News Service yesterday.

Brian Cresta, the top federal health and human services official stated that there is no hard deadline but cautioned that "Obviously, if there's not an approved waiver in place by July 1, there will be dollars that will be lost."

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