Ok, I have major problems with this Massachusetts bill, legally requiring people to have health insurance. Its first premise, for one, is completely irrational. Yes, insurance is legally required for cars, but not everyone is legally required to have a car. If you can't afford insurance, you can opt not to have a car. But if you can't afford health insurance, you can't opt not to be alive. Second, deciding to base low-cost plans on the poverty level assumes that the poverty level is a gauge that actually has meaning in this country. A family can live above the poverty level and still be extremely poor, living paycheck to paycheck as is, without the added cost of even a low-cost health plan. (And, um, $250 a month isn't really a low-cost health plan.)

Criminalizing those who don't have insurance is NOT the way to solve the huge health care problems that face this country. Dammit. Grrrr.

Mass. Bill Requires Health Coverage