"It is not a typical Massachusetts-Taxachusetts, oh-just-crazy-liberal plan." -- Well, that's good to know! We are on the verge of mandatory health insurance here in the Bay State: the tripartisan bill requires everyone who can afford it to buy insurance by next July, and creates new state programs to cover those who cannot. To me, this is not the same thing as "universal health care" but it's as close as we may ever get. Should be interesting to see how this plays out . . . I know of some folks who underreport their income to try to squeeze into the Free Care Pool, and those salad days will be over, rightly so. But should the legislature be able to decree that someone must spend $1,400 a year for minimum health coverage? Well, we require drivers to buy car insurance . . . I guess the analogy is, if you want to "drive" your body around here, you have to pay up front if it breaks down, not abandon it on a side street until the cops tow it and crush it into a cube. Or something.