Passage Of Arizona Ballot Measure Would Prevent 'Statism' In Health Care, Opinion Piece States

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 28 Oct 2008 - 11:00 PDT

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"On Election Day, Arizonans can give the nation the gift of a good example" through the passage of Proposition 101, a ballot measure that "could shape the health care debate that will arrest or accelerate the nation's slide into statism," syndicated columnist George Will writes in the Washington Post. The measure would amend the state constitution to prohibit the passage of any law that "restricts a person's freedom of choice of private health care systems or private plans of any type"; limits "a person's or entity's right to pay directly for lawful medical services"; or imposes "a penalty or fine, of any type, for choosing to obtain or decline health care coverage or for participation in any particular health care system or plan."

Opponents of the measure "are against what it would guarantee, including the right of individuals to pay directly for medical services without needing the permission of a third party," Will writes. He adds, "Proposition 101 would emancipate service providers from requirements that they either charge fees set by the state or charge nothing" and would prevent "pay or play" requirements, under which employers must offer health insurance to employees or pay into a public fund to provide coverage.

According to Will, the measure "would protect Arizonans not only against abridgements of their liberties by their state government but also perhaps against comparable actions by the federal government." The measure also would provide other states with a "template for resistance to contemporary liberalism's next lunge toward its unvarying goal -- enlargement of government supervision of our lives," Will writes (Will, Washington Post, 10/26).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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