House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi is said to have rejected the proposal.

01:00 AM EST on Friday, February 24, 2006

By MICHAEL P. NORTON
State House News Service

BOSTON -- Senate leaders earlier this month offered the House a compromise plan designed to deliver health insurance within three years to about 75 percent of Massachusetts residents who are presently uninsured.

According to a copy of the Senate plan obtained by the News Service, the compromise would insure 400,000 uninsured residents in three years and provide universal coverage, excluding illegal immigrants, within five years.

House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi is said to have rejected the proposal, as he continues to press for a plan covering more people and funded in part by a new payroll tax on businesses that don't cover their workers.

To hit the 400,000 mark, about 145,000 individuals would become insured under the compromise with the help of subsidies, 60,000 individuals would be added to the state Medicaid program, and 195,000 would be insured under new, affordable products to be made available on the private market.

The full Senate has approved legislation designed to deliver insurance to about half of the uninsured within two years. A more ambitious House-approved bill aims to bring about universal insurance, but includes a controversial tax on employers with 10 or more workers who don't offer insurance. The compromise did not include that tax.

Since last November, House and Senate leaders have been trying to reach consensus on legislation broadly expanding access to health insurance. State government leaders are fearful that the lack of a plan that meets with approval of the federal government will mean the loss of $385 million in federal health care funding and leave state government grappling with the social and financial problems tied to more than half a billion uninsured residents.

The Senate compromise carries a $1.3 billion cost in fiscal 2007, which begins July 1, with that annual cost rising to $1.4 billion in fiscal 2009. Most of the revenue to fund the plan already exists, including federal funds and assessments on hospitals and insurers.

But the compromise plan includes a new $75 million contribution from the state, $80 million in "free rider" assessments on employers whose uninsured workers require treatment, and a $7 million "fair share" assessment on employers who do not offer insurance. The latter assessment would work out to $62 per full-time employee.

The Senate compromise also called for Medicaid rates paid to hospitals, doctors and community health centers to be increased by $80 million a year over the next three years.