Health Insurance for All Voted in Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Legislature approved a landmark universal health-care bill Wednesday designed to provide basic health insurance for every resident of the state by 1992.

Under the bill, about 600,000 state residents who are now uninsured would receive health coverage either through employers’ taking advantage of new tax incentives or through a newly created state Department of Health Security.

Democratic Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, who first proposed the measure last fall, is expected to sign it next week.

The measure requires companies with six or more workers either to offer insurance to employees within four years or to pay a surcharge on unemployment insurance. Revenues generated by the surcharge would be used by the state to guarantee health insurance for those without coverage.

Smaller Firms Exempt

Firms with fewer than six employees are not subject to the surcharge even if they do not offer insurance. Residents working for these businesses could obtain health insurance through the state.

Republican leaders opposed the bill on grounds that it would hurt small businesses and that the state would not be able to afford it. The legislation could cost the state more than $600 million through 1992, the state Senate Ways and Means Committee estimated.

Approval of the plan, which is tied to a four-year hospital financing law containing fee increases, came after nine months of debate among legislators and special-interest groups with a stake in the state’s health-care system.