Massachusetts did it first!

I saw a discussion on tv about how this type of insurance reform is going to hurt low income workers, who are the very people this initiative claims to want to help. The income level for qualifying for free insurance is set too low. Forcing people who are barely making ends meet as it is to add another payment into a budget stretched to the limit is grossly unfair and why I have been against universal healthcare from the start. Yes, I agree that people need help but don't force it on them. Who does the government think it is to tell any of us what we can and cannot afford?

California is proposing a similar law to this one. The problem is that their income guidelines as to who can "afford" this are ridiculous. I fall just outside the guideline for being able to get a subsidy and I really mean just outside. I have a big student loan that I am paying off and the amount that I would have to pay for insurance would force me out in the street! I've already written to the Governor about it, but I don't know if it did any good. If I could afford to pay that much for insurance, I would have bought it on my own.

I'm glad I don't live there either. Although I believe I would be exempt as we don't make that much money. But I don't agree with it either. A person should not be forced to have to spend their hard earned money on something they don't want.

That is crazy! That is what Hilary was planning to do. I think they should not be able to do such a thing. Are we really free? It is getting to be a really big question.

I don't like it either, but here in canada we have universal medicare so it is not a problem for us really, but heck if people can't afford it they can't afford it.

I don't agree with the fines, but I do agree that health insurance should be like automobile insurance. It should be compulsory. I think that making healthcare more affordable will help with this.

...home of the free..?

darn if ya cant afford it ya cant! now the only way I have it I retired . and when I had it got it thru work! I dont beleive the should do this at all . talk about takeing our rights away one at a time grrrrrr

I cannot understand why anyone who could afford it would NOT have health insurance. Perhaps the law will serve as a wake up call that to be without in our day and age is just plain crazy.

All this means is that some of te state have got the idea that they can be dictators and run their own little fiefdom. This is America, not some communist country, and we have the right to believe what we want, say what we want and don what we want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. These laws mandating this and that are not what this country was founded on. This country was founded on individual freedom, and not some dictatorship from a wannabe king.

Thats a terrible law...A lot of people cannot afford to buy insurance its so expensive..The law does not know all of your personal debt,they just go by what you make and do not consider how much you owe...I am with you,i do not agree with this law...

i hope to god rhode island's not listening. that sounds like something they also would do. the law is asinine and unfair.if it wasn't a hardship on people,don't they think they'd have the insurance already?

What will the state do to people who don't pay the fine? If you don't have the money, you don't have the money. "You can't get blood from a stone." I read the article, did I miss something? This is insanity and government at its worst. What next? Will they make a law that wE have to buy products made in the USA? We'll all be beggers.

I too am glad I don't live in Massachusetts. We have health insurance and is basically useless. I have tried to have the discussion with my husband about canceling it and he won't hear of it. We pay over two hundred a month for our insurance and we have a $10,000 deductible. We will probably not hit our deductible ever so unless something bad happens to us we are spending/wasting money for something that doesn't do us any good. I don't believe that any locale, state, or federal agency in the government should tell us we have to have insurance unless of course it is a national plan similar to those found in different countries found across the world. It seems very undemocratic to have people forced to do something that they may/may not be able to afford, and do not have the need for. I guess the lines from the Declaration of Independence don't ring so true in Massachusetts "....with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." What if having insurance does not someone that lives in Massachusetts? Seems like their Rights are being violated.

I don't think I agree with it either! Yes, I'm glad more people have insurance BUT if the government really wants universal coverage they are the ones who need to make it happen...not by forcing laws on people and threatening fines. They claimed that x amount of people could afford it but didn't get it. What they don't mention are all the people who had to cut back on spending or take on more working hours so they could afford it. I'm glad I don't live and I sure hope something like this doesn't come to Pennsylvania.