Massachusetts Senate's health cuts stir outrage

The Massachusetts Senate's plan to cut 28,000 legal immigrant residents from Commonwealth Care coverage is discriminatory and shortsighted, advocates for the immigrant community say. The proposed cuts are included in the Senate Ways and Means committee budget. Commonwealth Care, created as part of the 2006 health law, aimed to make insurance coverage nearly universal in Massachusetts. It extended state-subsidized insurance on a sliding price scale to working-class residents who did not previously qualify.