Quite a number of obnoxious bills were passed this month, of which the Health Insurance Option Restoration Act is to my eye the most obnoxious. The whole system of employer provided health insurance that section 2 of the bill holds up as the gold standard of health care is based on the outmoded idea that like serfs of old, workers are bound to their workplaces for life. I have no objection to employers choosing to offer health insurance as a fringe benefit, but the idea that they should be required to do so imposes upon them a burden in HR management that they may well be ill-equipped to bear, especially in the case of small businesses.
The Health Insurance Option Restoration Act was drafted in response to Massachusetts enacting laws which (1) require individual health coverage under penalty of law and (2) tax business of certain size which do not offer health insurance. The rationale behind (2) is to help subsidize state-purchased health insurance for those whose business are large enough to offer health insurance, but choose not to because it's cheaper not to. Small businesses are exempt from the penalties in (2).
The truth is, a veto of section two does little to change the fact that Massachusetts currently does penalize these employers. (And, for this reason, I will not be bringing this issue back up for a veto override—it's pointless.)
