To the Point

Massachusetts Health Insurance, a Model for the Nation?

Massachusetts is being called the first state to provide healthcare coverage that's almost universal. Democrats and Republicans support a bill that requires everybody to buy health insurance--with a government subsidy for those who can't afford it. Employers who don't provide health insurance to workers would have to pay fines. Business, the medical community and advocates for the poor call it a breakthrough. If Ted Kennedy and Mitt Romney both support it, can it be all bad? It can, according to advocates of both health savings accounts and universal healthcare. We hear the pros and cons from physicians, the healthcare industry, public policy analysts and consumer advocates.Making News: Attack on Mosque Kills 78 in IraqThree suicide bombers struck a politically important mosque in northern Baghdad today. At least 78 people are dead and 163 have been wounded. Borzou Daragahi, who reports for the Los Angeles Times, was one of the few western journalists to go to the scene of severed body parts and sectarian tension.Reporter's Notebook: Was Judas a "Judas" After All?Was Judas not Jesus' betrayer after all? That's the impression given by discovery of another of the Gnostic gospels, books written 20-30 years after the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. The Gospel of Judas reports a conversation with Jesus privately telling his friend he will share "the mysteries of the kingdom." Jesus asks Judas to turn him over to the Roman authorities so his body can be sacrificed. Princeton's Elaine Pagels is an expert on religion and the Gnostic gospels.