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PASSED
in the State House of Representatives
on May 12, 2018, by a vote of
118-16
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Purpose: To force Vermonters to purchase health insurance or pay a fine to the State.
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Analysis: The primary function of H.696 is to require individual Vermonters to purchase and maintain “minimum essential coverage” for themselves and any dependent, or pay a penalty to the state beginning in the 2020 plan year. The impetus for this was the federal government eliminating the penalty for not having insurance under Obamacare.
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However, having established in law that there will be a future mandate, Vermont legislators still do not know how it would work or how it would be enforced, so the bill also creates the “Individual Mandate Working Group to develop recommendations regarding administration and enforcement of the individual mandate…”, which it will do by November 2018. The legislature will then have to pass another law in 2019 in order to make the individual health insurance mandate functional by 2020.
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Those voting YES support forcing Vermonters to purchase health insurance as doing so will help keep insurance premiums lower.
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Those voting NO do not support a state mandate to purchase health insurance, assert that forcing citizens to purchase a product from a private company is government overreach, and note that the mandate will make Vermont less affordable for young people, whom we are supposedly trying to attract.
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As Recorded in the House Journal, Saturday, May 12, 2018: “Shall the House adopt the report of the Committee of Conference? was decided in the affirmative. Yeas, 118. Nays, 16.” ( Read the Journal, p. 2397-2401.)
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Sir and/or Madam,
This is a most excellent article you published about House Bill H 696.
Also, publishing “How They Voted” – Excellent.
I subscribe to and always read your “Most Excellent Publication”
Thank you,
Jack Williams – Republican Candidate, Vermont State Senate (Windsor County)