604

That's it exactly, anthony - all they want to do is keep the insurance companies fat and happy. That's why Clinton's health plan was so dangerous back in the day - the insurance companies wouldn't have had their monopoly anymore. I'll never understand why Americans are so scared about a governmental health care program when the current system is so broken and getting worse (and more expensive) by the day. How many people have had to declare bankruptcy because of medical expenses in the past few years? And now with the new Republican written and Dem supported bankruptcy bill, how many of those people who had to declare bankruptcy STILL have to pay their medical cost debts.

Very Dickensian.

I don't get it either, rbe. But I'd put Clinton's plan in the same category of Insurance Industry Protection. The plan didn't create a single-payer system - it simply added a labyrinthine government bureaucracy on top of the existing private insurance industry bureaucracy.

You're last sentence certainly does say it all. More insurance equals higher premiums.

What happens to those who really can't afford it? Does Massachusetts fine them?

Kathy, people who are required to pay and don't will get a tax penalty. BTW, business who don't provide insurance will pay a few hundred dollars per employee - a fine which is likely to be less expensive than the insurance premiums.