Massachusetts has become the first state in the nation to require health insurance for each individual citizen of its state.  This may appear to be good for all, however, the State isn’t giving out free health insurance, they are forcing individuals to purchase a plan from their own pocket.

Effective July 1, 2007, the law, which uses federal and state tax dollars, is aimed at making health insurance affordable to all residents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, including low-income populations. Those who fall below the federal poverty line may be eligible for health care at no cost. A Health Disparities Council has been created to monitor and reduce racial and ethnic health disparities.

State income tax laws will be used to check and see if health insurance was purchased.  If it was not, there will be penalties.  Employers are also subject to being forced to offer health insurance to its employeees.

This new law essentially requires the residents of Massachusetts to purchase health insurance, whether they want it or not, to a company that has its own bottom line to take care of, not necessarily the coverage and benefits of the individual.

Massachusetts has not fixed their problem of uninsured.  All they have done is make it illegal to not be insured.  What Massachusetts has done is declared that lower income people will pay large premiums or leave the state.  Many will be levied huge fines because they can’t afford the premiums.  A vicious circle will begin, eventually hitting the middle class because they, too, will be forced to purchase insurance that will, most likely, deny their claims on numerous reasons, including pre-existing conditions.

Massachusetts is ignoring the fact that the reason most people don’t have insurance is that they cannot afford it.  These same people are also denied Medicaid/Medicare because they make too much money.  The state of Massachusetts also gets to decide if you get free health care.

A committee has been put into place to find ways to lower costs, but that won’t be implemented until 2008, at the earliest.

This is not subsidized or socialized health care.  It is a cash cow for insurance companies who operate in Massachusetts.  Just when you thought the health care system in America couldn’t get any worse, Massachusetts laughs and throws this crap legislation into the fray.

There are too many questions left unresolved (who pays for those who can’t pay, what about the chronically ill, etc.) that aren’t covered in the new law.  The poor will, supposedly, be taken care of, but those that need the most help, the sick, are overlooked yet again.