MA health coverage law not a budget buster

Outside Massachusetts, talk show hosts and politicians frequently blast the state’s health coverage law as a "budget buster." "It has been an abject failure," Senator Rick Santorum told the audience during a presidential primary debate in January, directing his comments towards former Mass. Gov. Mitt Rommey. "He's stood by the fact that it's $8 billion more expensive than the current law." That's just one of the myths the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation (MTF) hopes to debunk with a report out Friday. The facts will help. Michael Widmer, president of the MTF, says the state has spent just $91 million more since 2006 to cover the uninsured than it was spending before the law passed.