By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-12-27 14:57:01 | Word Count: 534
Although Congress has yet to approve an overhaul of the nation’s health care system, a state lawmaker wants to give Missouri voters the chance to opt out of whatever is eventually approved.
And state Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, said she has 16 Senate co-sponsors who have signed onto her constitutional amendment that would prohibit any law or rule that requires people to buy health insurance. Cunningham has pre-filed the resolution for consideration during the session that begins Jan. 6.
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In an interview, Cunningham said her legislation protects constitutional freedoms, including the ability for people to use their own money, not health insurance, to cover their medical bills.
“It’s really simple,” Cunningham said. “The health care freedom act is a constitutional amendment that will shield Missourians from the unconstitutional federal health care mandates and protects the right of individuals to make their own medical and insurance choices, including the right of patients to pay directly for medical service.”
Changing the U.S. health care system is a work in progress. While the U.S. House has passed its version, the Senate is debating its bill.
“The notion that some legislators want to opt out of all the health care reforms, that seems pretty premature and frankly kind of dumb,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., yesterday in a conference call with reporters. “They want to opt Missouri out of something they don’t know what it is.
“I think we are going to pass a health care bill, and the sky will not fall,” McCaskill added. “Health care costs will come down, and it’s going to be better.”
Cunningham’s party is opposing changes. At the heart of the debate are mandates requiring everyone to have insurance, requiring employers to offer insurance to their workers and requiring insurance companies to cover people regardless of pre-existing medical conditions.
The theory behind the mandates is that the more people in the insurance pool and paying premiums, the lower the costs for everyone. A component of some proposed plans is a government-run system that could compete with private insurers.
“Americans do not like individual mandates, which is what this is,” Cunningham said. “I can’t remember in the history of the country where you are required to buy a good or a service and if you don’t, you are penalized.”
Asked about the requirement that all motorists have automobile insurance, Cunningham said there was a “huge difference” because driving was a privilege and taxpayers maintain the roads.
Health care overhaul advocates point out that those with private health insurance pay more because those without coverage drive up hospitals’ uncompensated care costs, which are passed along to those who can pay. This week, the Missouri State Medical Association, the state’s largest physician organization, came out against the health reform bills being considered by Congress. The organization cited the cost, government intrusion and the public option as reasons for opposition.
