Health official says compliance high

The vast majority of Massachusetts taxpayers complied with the new health insurance reform law by answering the filing requirement on their new return.

That's according to Jon Kingsdale, executive director of the Commonwealth Connector Authority, which is implementing the law and its mandate to expand coverage to nearly every resident.

Kinsgdale issued a report card Wednesday for the reform effort thus far.

He said nearly 99 percent of taxpayers complied with the requirement. Taxpayers needed to show they complied with the law and had health insurance as of the end of 2007. If they did not, they lost their personal exemption, which was worth about $219 for an individual.

Kingsdale said only a few thousand people appealed the law to the Connector.

Of 168,000 uninsured taxpayers, 97,000 were deemed able to afford insurance, according to Department of Revenue Data supplied to the Connector. Another 62,000 were determined to not be able to afford insurance, citing income or health hardships.

Another 9,000 residents claimed a religious exemption from obtaining health insurance.