"Neither"? No way.

So after some uproar from the business community, House Speaker DiMasi admits a technical error (not "minor", but literally technical) in his health care bill, and says he'll fix it so as not to penalize companies that do offer insurance to their workers.

But buried in paragraph 18 of the Globe story is this:

DiMasi said the business leaders who called him vowed to continue to oppose the tax, even after he told them he would exempt employers who cover their workers. [emphasis mine]

That's just flat-out unacceptable. As I said about Ford and GM, when faced with the alternative of paying for their own insurance vs. paying the state to do so, many businesses (not all!) are going to try to weasel into "Neither". And if they don't pay their fair share, the rest of us will have to pick up the slack.

Look, if the employer-based system is broken down, employers have to get out and push for single-payer. But if individuals are going to be mandated to buy care (an option I don't especially like, and which for David is a non-starter), there sure as hell better be a mandate for employers, either for taxation or coverage.