What else could you call it if you face criminal penalties for being too poor to purchase mandatory health insurance?

The Massachusetts legislature approved a bill Tuesday that would require all residents to purchase health insurance or face legal penalties, which would make this the first state to tackle the problem of incomplete medical coverage by treating patients the same way it does cars.

Gov. Mitt Romney (R) supports the proposal, which would require all uninsured adults in the state to purchase some kind of insurance policy by July 1, 2007, or face a fine. Their choices would be expanded to include a range of new and inexpensive policies -- ranging from about $250 per month to nearly free -- from private insurers subsidized by the state.

Romney said the bill, modeled on the state's policy of requiring auto insurance, is intended to end an era in which 550,000 people go without insurance and their hospital and doctor visits are paid for in part with public funds.

"We insist that everybody who drives a car has insurance," Romney said in an interview. "And cars are a lot less expensive than people."

Tuesday's votes approving the bill -- 154 to 2 in the House and 37 to 0 in the Senate -- were the culmination of two years of politicking and several months of backroom negotiations, as rival health-care plans from Romney and the two Democrat-led chambers were hammered into one.

So I guess the option for the truy poor in Massachusetts will be to leave the state or stop living, won't it. Because that is the fundamental difference between car insurance and health insurance -- you can avoid the car insurance requirement by not having a car, but the only way to avoid the health insurance requirement is by dying or moving. How progressive!

And as I read this article, this will be enforced in a manner that only those who follow the law and file state income tax returns or who provide truthful identifying information at hospitals will face penalties. I guess that means our our illegal alien friends will skate, while needy Americans are penalized for relying on their government for assistance when facing hard times.

Posted by: Greg at 10:36 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 378 words, total size 2 kb.