A person would have to go back and look for the information on line to find the answer to your question. I haven't done that so I don't know how long it was discussed by Mass legislators before finally becoming law. Below is an excerpt from Wiki. It looks like Romney was instrumental in using his managerial skills to craft Mass health care reform.
"Romney was at the forefront of a movement to bring near-universal health insurance coverage to the state, after Staples founder Stemberg told him at the start of his term that doing so would be the best way he could help people[136][137][138] and after the federal government, due to the rules of Medicaid funding, threatened to cut $385 million in those payments to Massachusetts if the state did not reduce the number of uninsured recipients of health care services.[20][136][139] Despite not having campaigned on the idea of universal health insurance,[138] Romney decided that because people without insurance still received expensive health care, the money spent by the state for such care could be better used to subsidize insurance for the poor.[137][138]
After positing that any measure adopted not raise taxes and not resemble the previous decade's failed "Hillarycare" proposal, Romney formed a team of consultants from different political backgrounds that beginning in late 2004 came up with a set of innovative proposals more ambitious than an incremental one from the Massachusetts Senate and more acceptable to him than one from the Massachusetts House of Representatives that incorporated a new payroll tax.[20][136][139] In particular, Romney pushed for incorporating an individual mandate at the state level.[14] Past rival Ted Kennedy, who had made universal heath coverage his life's work and who, over time, had developed a warm relationship with Romney,[140] gave Romney's plan a positive reception, which encouraged Democratic legislators to cooperate.[136][139] The effort eventually gained the support of all major stakeholders within the state, and Romney helped break a logjam between rival Democratic leaders in the legislature.[136][139]
"There really wasn't Republican or Democrat in this. People ask me if this is conservative or liberal, and my answer is yes. It's liberal in the sense that we're getting our citizens health insurance. It's conservative in that we're not getting a government takeover."
—Mitt Romney upon passage of the Massachusetts health reform law in 2006.[136]
On April 12, 2006, Romney signed the resulting Massachusetts health reform law, which requires nearly all Massachusetts residents to buy health insurance coverage or face escalating tax penalties such as the loss of their personal income tax exemption.[141] The bill also establishes means-tested state subsidies for people who do not have adequate employer insurance and who make below an income threshold, by using funds previously designated to compensate for the health costs of the uninsured.[142][143][144] He vetoed eight sections of the health care legislation, including a controversial $295-per-employee assessment on businesses that do not offer health insurance and provisions guaranteeing dental benefits to Medicaid recipients.[141][145] The legislature overrode all eight vetoes, but the governor's office said the differences were not essential.[145] The law was the first of its kind in the nation and became the signature achievement of Romney's term in office.[139][nb 10]"
en.wikipedia.org |
