# how does Massachusetts health insurance requirement work for the low income self-employed?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-massachusetts-health-insurance-requirement-work-for-the-low-income-self-employed/518786>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 24, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-massachusetts-health-insurance-requirement-work-for-the-low-income-self-employed/518786 "2009-11-24T16:18:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![code\_grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@code\_grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/code_grey)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-massachusetts-health-insurance-requirement-work-for-the-low-income-self-employed/518786/1 "2009-11-24T16:18:53Z")

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the question hits close to home for me personally because I am one of those people ☹

Anyway, so what is the straight dope on young, healthy, low income, self-employed people in Massachusetts who want to optimize (as in, minimize at any cost) expenditure on health insurance and/or punitive fees for lacking it? Is there some nice published chart somewhere showing that for such-and-such income bracket (let’s say \< $2000 per year, or $4000 - $6000 per year, or whatever) the optimal solution is to buy this or that particularly cheap/worthless insurance and for some other such bracket it’s best not to buy anything because the state doesn’t penalize you for not buying because you are too poor? I am trying to read this up online, but the hard-hitting journalists aren’t too hard-hitting in this matter, they haven’t seemed to bother to actually gather up this info and publish it in an accessible manner.

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**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-massachusetts-health-insurance-requirement-work-for-the-low-income-self-employed/518786/2 "2009-11-24T16:31:28Z")

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This may be of some help. It’s not a chart, but an “affordability calculator” right from the Massachusetts state website.

[Affordability Calculator](https://wfb.dor.state.ma.us/dorcommon/tools/hcaffordability/Year2008/Index.aspx)

It says it is for 2008, but I don’t believe there have been changes for 2009.

From the same website:

> [@](#):
>
> Not everyone who fails to meet this requirement will be penalized. The state has standards that show what people should be able to afford. If health insurance is deemed unaffordable, based on these standards, there is no penalty.