In Massachusetts, Insurance Mandate Stirs Some Dissent (New York Times)

About 2% of the Massachusetts population, roughly 120,000 residents, does not have health insurance despite the state’s 2006 law requiring nearly everyone to have it. Some of the 2% will have to pay a penalty. The success of the Massachusetts mandate led it to become a model for the national health reform law. About 48,000 residents paid a penalty in 2009, down from 67,000 in 2007. But not everyone is happy with the mandate. A statewide poll last year by the Harvard School of Public Health and The Boston Globe found that 63% of residents supported the law, while 51% supported the mandate. A decision from the Supreme Court on the legality of the health reform law will have no bearing on the Massachusetts law because it is not a federal statute.