Mass.Struggles with Statist Health Care Mandate

The Boston Globe reports:

To remove the threat of a public backlash, the state plans to exempt nearly 20 percent of uninsured adults from the state's new requirement that everyone have health insurance.


The proposal, expected to be approved by a state board today, is based on calculations that even the lowest-cost insurance would not be affordable for an estimated 60,000 people with low and moderate incomes who do not qualify for state subsidies. Forcing them to buy insurance or pay a penalty could jeopardize the rest of the state's initiative, officials said. Instead, the state board appears prepared to settle for near universal coverage, all but 1 percent of the state's population.

The proposed affordability standard is a compromise between those who believed that broad exemptions were needed and those who argued that most people could afford new state-approved insurance plans. State officials had previously indicated they were not inclined to exempt many people.

The struggle for socialism.