No surprise here. Basing a health care plan on forcing citizens to buy health insurance, and subsidizing it with taxpayer funds and corporate fees doesn't work. The businesses just don't bother paying their share.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/05/10/mass_has_yet_to_collect_fees_from_firms_for_healthcare/Taxpayers are bearing a larger share of the cost of the expansion of healthcare coverage than expected because the state has not yet collected a penny from businesses that do not help insure their workers.
Penalties on those businesses were expected to bring in $95 million this fiscal year and $76 million next year, according to the Legislature's estimates when the bill was signed into law a year ago.
But the state now expects to collect nothing in the fiscal year that ends June 30, and only $24 million next year, according to budget officials in Governor Deval Patrick's administration and in the House of Representatives.