Arizona Universal Health Care Initiative To Appear On Ballot

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 19 Aug 2008 - 12:00 PDT

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A measure that would prohibit enactment of any law in Arizona that requires people to obtain health coverage has qualified for the November ballot after a Superior Court judge ruled that the 22 signatures originally declared invalid should be counted, the Capital Media/Arizona Daily Star reports. Judge Mark Aceto said the 22 signatures -- part of a random sample of 5% of the total, which must be verified by the Maricopa County Recorder's Office -- should be counted on the grounds that there is no evidence supporting a claim made by Deputy County Attorney Colleen Connor that the signatures had incorrect or incomplete dates. He said it can be concluded that each signer was a registered voter on each date in question.

Proposition 101 would forbid any Arizona law that "restricts a person's freedom of choice of private health care systems or private plans of any type." In addition, the initiative would bar any state law that would require people to contribute to health care programs for refusing to participate. Eric Novack, one of the two doctors leading the campaign for Proposition 101, said supporters of the initiative are not necessarily against providing coverage for everyone. He said, "We just think that health care reform has to have the rights that we lay out in our initiative [as] protected," adding, "Health care reform can be built on top of these rights." Supporters of Proposition 101 have collected $400,000 from various donors to fund their efforts (Fischer, Capital Media/Arizona Daily Star, 8/15).

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