We are making no such prediction. Neither are we expressing optimism for the plan's long-term success.

What we do say, emphatically, is that the Massachusetts Legislature and Gov. Mitt Romney deserve credit for being the first to finally do something concrete to address a national crisis; there are 45 million Americans with no health insurance.

The plan requires that all state residents have health insurance by July 1, 2007. Details and numbers are sketchy, such as just how much it will cost the state, in the long run, to subsidize inexpensive or free policies from private insurers. Romney says they will be covered by the $1 billion Massachusetts now pays for free care to the uninsured.

After the deadline, the state will reduce tax refunds for anyone who can't prove they are insured.

Most of the day-to-day administration will be worked out by the new Commonwealth Care Health Insurance Connector, which will decide who will pay premiums, how much they will pay, and whose insurance will be free. Also to be determined is how employers will contribute.

The plan will require years of fine-tuning, and perhaps, in the end, will prove too costly, too unwieldy. Still, there is this that already can be said: It is by far the best plan out there requiring universal health coverage - since there is no other.

The plan is laudable for another reason. It is the culmination of years of negotiations between Republicans and Democrats and involved an array of stakeholders. That makes it a rarity in these contentious times. The votes for approval in the Massachusetts Legislature reflected the degree of compromise - 154-2 in the House; 37-0 in the Senate.

The Republican Romney is not seeking re-election in November and so will no longer be governor when his plan is up and running, or stumbling. Whether he will leave a landmark legacy that other states can emulate, or just another corpse in the graveyard of American health-care reform, remains to be seen.

Still, he's given the country a pilot program. What other presidential aspirant can say that?