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GUEST: Jerry Flanagan, Health Care Policy Director at the Foundation for Tax Payer and Consumer Rights

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney yesterday signed into law a bill that is being hailed as “the most comprehensive health care reform measure” in the US. The bill will apparently assure near-universal health insurance for Massachusetts residents. It’s being heralded as a national model. The measure was the result of intense year long negotiations between the Republican governor, the mostly Democratic state Legislature, insurance providers and health experts. The health insurance bill will require all state residents to purchase health insurance by July 2007. Before signing the bill into law, Governor Romney used his line-item veto to overturn eight portions of the bill, including a requirement that employers who do not provide health insurance to their employees pay the state as much as $295 per worker each year.

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