By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2010-02-03 10:09:13 | Word Count: 437
A state Senate committee today heard testimony on whether the U.S. Constitution allows the federal government to compel individuals to buy health insurance. Dave Roland, a lawyer with the Show Me Institute, said the question could be answered by the U.S. Supreme Court if the court is asked to interpret whether the Constitution’s commerce clause relates to the purchase of health care coverage. The Show Me Institute is a free-market think tank.
Roland testified in favor of a proposed amendment to the Missouri Constitution that would prohibit any law that compels a patient, employer or health care provider to participate in any government- or privately run health care system. Sponsored by Sen. Jane Cunningham, a St. Louis County Republican, the resolution is designed to block the federal government from requiring the purchase of health care insurance under proposals now being debated in Congress.
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Cunningham said her legislation, which would be proposed to Missouri voters in a statewide election, would not be an “opt-out” plan that prevents the health care change from taking effect in Missouri.
“American citizens should have the right to make their own health care decisions,” Cunningham said.
A component of some federal health care reform bills requires everyone to have insurance, thereby increasing the pool of premiums paid to cover all people, including those with pre-existing medical conditions. Those who do not have insurance could be fined.
Cunningham said if her legislation is approved, it would not prevent someone from enrolling in a public plan, and it would not affect current programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. “Missourians would lose nothing if this passes,” she said in an appearance before the Senate Committee on Governmental Accountability and Fiscal Oversight.
Jeffrey Thomasson, a physician and past president of the Missouri State Medical Association, testified in favor, saying, “It is a fundamental right of everyone to make health care decisions.”
Daniel Landon, a lobbyist for the Missouri Hospital Association, took a stand against the bill, saying hospitals had agreed to give up millions of dollars to the federal government to help pay for health reform and they would lose that money if the individual health insurance mandate were not enforced.
“We’re worried the money won’t come back to Missouri without a mandate,” Landon said. The committee took no action on the resolution.
