PLEASE, PLEASE PAY YOUR TAXES!!!

In Massachusetts it is universal healthcare - until you have a budget shortfall.

July 14, 2009 - New York Times, by Abby Goodnough, Massachusetts Takes a Step Back From Health Care for All
"The new state budget in Massachusetts eliminates health care coverage for some 30,000 legal immigrants to help close a growing deficit, reversing progress toward universal coverage just as Congress looks to the state as a model for overhauling the nation’s health care system."

The affected immigrants, permanent residents who have had green cards for less than five years, are now covered under Commonwealth Care, a subsidized insurance program for low-income residents that is central to the groundbreaking health care law enacted here in 2006.

Critics of the cut, which would save an estimated $130 million, say it unfairly targets taxpaying residents and threatens the state’s health care experiment at a critical time.

Gov. Deval Patrick wants to restore $70 million to partly cover legal immigrants, despite tax collections down by $2.7 billion in the fiscal year that ended June 30. [Maybe that explains his poll numbers. "Considering the margin of error, his popularity could actually be zero."]

The law requires that almost every resident have insurance, and to meet that goal, the state subsidizes coverage for those earning up to three times the federal poverty level, or $66,150 for a family of four.

And if you don't apply for it, they do it for you. Or used to.

Commonwealth Care will save an estimated $63 million by no longer automatically enrolling low-income residents who fail to enroll themselves.

Reportedly, that would have been an 180,000 people in the program. (How that would amount to $63 million, I don't know. I've never been able to figure out how they figure the costs.)

"Massachusetts is one of the states, including California, New York and Pennsylvania, that nonetheless provide at least some health coverage for such immigrants."

But the state insurer, Commonwealth Care, is seeing rising enrollment with rising unemployment. And hospitals will be impacted.

If the full $130 million cut survives, hospitals that provide free care to the poor will need to spend an additional $87 million this year treating immigrants who lose their coverage, according to the Massachusetts Hospital Association. That would come on top of a $40 million cut in the state’s Health Safety Net, which reimburses such hospitals.

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This, folks, is the model for a National Healthcare system.

Even the Massachusetts State Treasurer, a Democrat, is calling Massachusett's universal healthcare "a luxury taxpayers can no longer afford."