Feds OK's Mass. universal healthcare plan

The federal government has OK'ed Massachusetts's proposed universal health insurance plan by granting a Medicaid waiver for the program and agreeing to continue providing $385 million per year in Medicaid funding for the next two years. The agreement also includes an additional $225 million to expand Medicaid coverage, says this article in The Boston Globe. The program will offer a combination of subsidized and low-cost insurance plans, expanded Medicaid coverage and incentives for businesses to cover workers. It also requires that everyone have some form of coverage. The law gradually shifts a portion of Medicaid money from direct payments to hospitals--primarily Boston Medical Center and Cambridge Hospital--to using that money to insure poor residents, a change pushed by the federal government. The state will also increase enrollment in the state-federal Medicaid program for unemployed adults.

To get the facts on the Mass. proposal:
- read this article from The Boston Globe