Mass. Health Care Law Will Require All Businesses to Pay for Health Care
        Because all the press in Massachusetts is in favor of Universal Health Care, they are not reporting any of the serious threats to our businesses (if any of the press has even bothered to analyze the many pages of the complicated law which is over 150 pages).  As our staff begins to uncover the truth about the law, we will report it to you.
        Suppose a small business decides not to offer health insurance to its employees (and instead pays the $295 “assessment” per employee) and one of their employees has a heart attack or a serious car accident and MassHealth (the "free" coverage that was expanded under the new law) provides the employee with $250,000 of treatments.
        In that case, under the new law, the Commonwealth is required to recover up to $250,000 from the employer. In addition, now that the “Free Rider” surcharge has been triggered, the employer would also be liable for any other medical benefits paid by the state to any other employee on MassHealth (or their dependents) for the rest of the year.
        The employer would have 90 days to pay the full amount. After that, it would be charged up to 18% interest on any outstanding medical bills, plus “fees and penalties” not to exceed 5% per month.
        For any small business that had to face this scenario, they would likely struggle with just servicing the interest and penalties on the medical reimbursement --- never mind the actual charges for which they would be liable.         Also, if the owner should sell the business, the surcharge/penalty goes with the company. Under this new law, any business not providing healthcare is only one serious illness or accident away from bankruptcy or liquidation.
        For companies that are not providing healthcare, one can imagine that they would be avoiding hiring individuals on MassHealth (particularly those with dependents) like the plague. For this reason, the new healthcare law states that an employer cannot “discriminate” against hiring an employee if he or she is on MassHealth, despite the fact that they know that hiring such a person may actually lead to the bankruptcy of the company.