Massachusetts takes a step back from healthcare for all

The new state budget in Massachusetts eliminates healthcare coverage for some 30,000 legal immigrants to help close a growing deficit, reversing progress toward universal coverage. The affected immigrants, permanent residents who have had green cards for less than five years, are now covered under a subsidized insurance program for low-income residents that is central to the state's healthcare law enacted in 2006. Critics of the cut, which would save an estimated $130 million, say it unfairly targets taxpaying residents and threatens the state's healthcare experiment at a critical time.