Your tax dollars at work. Why should non-citizens be afforded the same rights as citizens? You can see where this is going, long term, and it's getting scary. It won't be long, of course, before illegal immigrants are granted the same access. As the distinction between citizens and immigrants (legal or illegal) begins to fade, American culture will begin to fade.

This is an example of the law of unitended consequences and the State going overboard on paying for benefits. Let's do some basic math. $150,000,000 divided by the estimated 37,470 legal immigrants in this program...comes to about $4,000 a year per immigrant, or an average of $16,000 a year each immigrant family. It seems excessive if you think it through some more because those numbers represent about what an individual and family premium would be for health insurance in the private sector. The state is basically paying their entire premium - but why all of it? I assume these legal immigrants have jobs - so do their employers offer and contribute monies to pay for health insurance for them? Can't the immigrants contribute some of the cost like most employees do? Can't the state work with the employers and the immigrant employees to come to some reasonable contribution structure so the tax payer is not footing the entire bill? I'm all for giving a helping hand, but the numbers here don't add up to the State providing a frugal, prudent management of these taxes. But, then again...this is Massachusetts, so it doesn't surprise me...but remember this - The dieing words of a failing company are "that's the way we've always done it".

Strangely enough illegal immigrants were not affected by this at all, they do get FREE Mass Health.