Keep an eye on Massachusetts

Now why didn't we think of that?

The Massachusetts legislature, facing pressure from the federal government to reduce the number of people who don't have health care coverage, has simply passed a law that everyone must have health insurance.

Simple, huh?

But don't laugh. It's not just another liberal program out of Sen. Ted Kennedy's home state. The law includes a big stick of penalties for those who could afford coverage but simply choose not to do so, as well as a sliding-scale premium carrot for those on the lower end of the economic scale.

Hawaii passed a mandatory medical insurance law in 1974, but many residents remain uninsured. Maine passed one in 2003, but it's mostly voluntary.

Massachusetts requires employers with 11 or more workers to provide health care coverage or pay a fee of $295 per employee. Gov. Mitt Romney opposes the fee, but the bill has enough support that his line-item veto could be overridden.

Taking three years to implement, the plan will, of course be expensive, costing more than $1 billion a year, including $125 million in new state spending and $650 million in federal Medicaid payments.

Health care is an issue that won't go away. In fact, a recent poll indicated that it is the No. 1 troubling issue for Americans.

Since 2000, the average cost of health insurance has gone up more than 40 percent. It now costs an average family almost $10,000 a year.

Forty million Americans, including 9 million children, have no health insurance. And, when they get sick, the financial burden is shifted to those who can pay, via higher medical costs.

Universal health care is a topic that sticks in the craw of most self-reliant conservative Nebraskans.

But with the state's Medicaid bill pushing 20 percent of the state budget and headed nowhere but up, we need to keep an eye on Massachusetts.