The arrival of July 1 means Ontario workers are now paying the province's new health care premium, which the Liberal government introduced just months after sweeping into power on a promise not to raise taxes.

The province will raise more than $2 billion a year by collecting between $60 and $900 per person annually, depending on their income.

The health tax created problems for the federal Liberals during the election campaign, but provincial Finance Minister Greg Sorbara said the anger is subsiding.

"No one celebrates the fact that taxes are going up," he said. "But we hope they will celebrate the fact that we're going to reduce waiting times, we're going to provide vaccines for kids ..."

Reducing waiting times was the main election promise during Prime Minister Paul Martin's election campaign.

Even people who agree that those goals are worth raising taxes for don't like the way Ontario's new premium is scaled to income. The tax kicks in at $20,000. Someone whose income is $50,000 will pay $600. Millionaires will pay the top rate of $900.

"We don't like the way they did it," said Ethel Meade, co-chair of the Ontario Health Coalition. "It's taking too much from the people at the bottom and not enough from the people at the top."