Few Mass Residents As Against Individual Mandate as Its Creator

In Massachusetts, we have a distinction that we all can be proud of. Of all the US states, we have the highest number of citizens with health insurance. And the individual mandate, requiring us all to buy it or face a tax penalty, raises nary a peep among us.

Go out to the hustings in 2012 and listen to Mitt Romney, our former governor. He who once championed the mandate as a way to discourage “the free riders” who can afford insurance but use emergency rooms instead, now claims he’d roll back ‘Obamacare’ all because of the mandate.

Yet we have proof that responsible citizens are willing to get health insurance or face a minor penalty on their state taxes. It’s just not a big deal, despite the puffed up claims by the Supreme Court that it’s like forcing us to buy and eat broccoli.

In a Boston Globe story today, two polls showed that 60% of Mass residents approve of the law. It’s mostly because so few of us have had to pay.