I am proud that my state, Massachusetts, has universal health insurance.  We are the only state in the country with it.  If you live, work, or go to school in Massachusetts you must have health insurance.  Failure to have it results in a fine.  This year it is only about $ 500.00 (not sure of the exact amount).  Next year it is significant, about $ 2000.00.  Also any company with eleven or more employees must provide health insurance or pay a (rather minimal) fine.  The state has a guarantee that health insurance will not cost more than a certain percentage of your gross income.  I think it is six per cent but I am not sure.  The state helps pay for insurance based on income.  Also, the people of this state overwhelmingly support the law and yes this is a very liberal state; you know we are also the only state with gay marriage, which the state legislature and governor strongly support as do most of the citizens here! (I just needed to add this so that I get flamed on this too!) 

The reason the law is going to work is that the new law did not make any changes with how most people get their health insurance which is provided by their employer.  The state is fortunate to have a lot of large employers that provide good benefits.  This was important.  The law took care of the seven per cent who did not have health insurance.  Another reason the law is going to work is that the state already spent a lot on health care.  The money was redirected to providing insurance instead of emergency health care.  Massachusetts was spending billions of dollars on emergency room care.  The state figured out that the way to actually cut costs was to get the necessary health care uninsured people needed before they had to go to the emergency room where the cost of the care was expensive and for most free.  Again, health care is a right here as it should be everywhere.

People without health insurance are not lazy.  Most of them are working poor who have to make a decision, either pay rent and eat or pay for health care.  The cost of living in Massachusetts is ridiculous.  So for the poor, health care was something people who could not afford it did without.  They were not lazy they were just poor.  The emergency room is filled with people who have no health insurance and whatever illness they have has progressed to the point where they need emergency care that costs a fortune.  If the health care problem was addressed earlier it would have cost less.  Again this was one reason Massachusetts adopted universal health insurance laws.

Yes we tax payers are paying to insure the poor.  I have no problem with that.  In fact, my conscience feels better that we do.  Tax payers also take care of other groups in other states that do not need support, like building sports stadiums so that a bunch of guys can see their favorite football team play a few weeks in the fall.  It is funny how conservatives complain about paying for health care for the poor but do not have issues about helping to pay for some guy's ticket to see an over paid baseball player catch a ball in right field!  They use the excuse that paying for the stadium provides jobs.  These are jobs for eight Sundays a year that pay a non living wage to the poor who cannot afford health insurance on what they make. These people at sports stadiums who work at the food stalls probably make ten to twelve dollars an hour.  In Massachusetts you are not going to pay rent and feed the kids on this money!  You certainly cannot afford health insurance.  I am proud that no one in Massachusetts who is poor is without health insurance now.  By the end of the year no one will be without health insurance unless they are an idiot and like paying fines.  The group that the state is struggling with are single (mostly white) males who are young and think they do not need it.  They are wrong.  I was reading on MSN about one single male on Cape Cod who was without insurance prior to the law and broke an arm.  It cost him $ 9000.00 to get it fixed.

The majority of people without health insurance are not illegal immigrants, people by the way this country needs, but are poor Americans and males who chose to go without insurance.  While illegal immigrants are a large percentage of those without insurance, they are not the majority.

Bill