Mass oversells itself

The New York Times is reporting that Massachusetts has enacted a bill providing for universal health coverage, but I wonder. The bill supposedly provides tax penalties for those who "could afford" health insurance but do not buy it. I am skeptical that the penalties could be harsh enough to force those who do not want to insure to do so. The bill penalizes employers of more than ten $295 per employee if they do not provide insurance. Gee, that's like almost 3% of what it costs to provide family insurance that most people would recognize as such. Unless there is a huge subsidy happening here, I'm thinking that this is a huge nonstory.