Facts on the Massachussets Bill (from Mass-Care)

• Most uninsured people will now have to buy their own insurance without any or with very little financial support.

• The Bill will not help the underinsured or those with poor quality insurance, including those on Medicare paying high out-of-pocket costs.

• It will not attempt to reduce the costs of health insurance for individuals and businesses paying the highest prices in the world.

• 40 percent of the uninsured in Massachusetts, the 292,000 who earn more than three times the poverty level income, will be forced to purchase their own health insurance without any help or subsidies from the state. Bad insurance for someone earning three times the poverty level will cost them 20 percent of their total income.

• The Bill raises only $170 million per year in new spending to help subsidize 748,000 uninsured people in Massachusetts. This is not enough to pay for 45,000 people. All other funds used by the Bill are a shell game, most taken out of Free Care - which provides medically necessary health services for the uninsured - and moved into more wasteful plans run by commercial insurance companies.

• This Bill, which will affect the lives of hundreds of thousands, was bought and paid for by healthcare industry lobbyists. Industry lobbyists spent over $7.5 million this year to make your health care Bill work for them. Forcing uninsured people into private insurance plans will create new business and new profits for insurers, without reforming the system of waste and discriminatory health care access for Massachusetts residents.