Massachusetts Begins Universal Health Care

BOSTON -- There is a lot of talk about overhauling health care in the United States, but Massachusetts is actually trying to do it -- again.

Today, the home of some of the nation's most prestigious hospitals and medical schools becomes the first state to require its residents to have health insurance or face financial penalties. Making insurance mandatory -- and more affordable -- for Massachusetts's 6.5 million residents is the centerpiece of a law approved by the legislature last year that civic and business leaders hope will dramatically reduce the ranks of the state's 400,000 uninsured and the number of people who seek costly "uncompensated" care in hospital emergency rooms.