Arizona Groups Propose Health Care Plans For 2008 Ballot

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 01 Oct 2007 - 6:00 PDT

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Two Arizona surgeons on Tuesday unveiled a 2008 statewide general election ballot proposal that would prevent mandated health coverage from ever being enacted in the state, the Arizona Republic reports. Jeffrey Singer, treasurer of the ballot measure campaign, said the proposal would preserve residents' rights to purchase or abstain from purchasing health insurance (Pitzel, Arizona Republic, 9/26).

The proposal, called the Medical Choice for Arizona Act, also would ensure that residents can continue to purchase prescription drugs or alternative medical treatments not covered by insurance, Singer said. He added, "We just want to make sure that whatever ends up happening ... won't be able to restrict people's freedom of choice regarding whether or not they want to participate in a particular plan." Supporters have until July 3, 2008, to collect 230,047 signatures for the measure to be added to next year's general election ballot.

Meanwhile, a separate petition drive, organized by Healthy Arizona, is preparing a measure that seeks to provide health coverage to all residents and that would base premiums on a sliding income scale (Fischer, Capitol Media/Arizona Daily Star, 9/26). Mark Osterloh, a Tucson ophthalmologist on the steering committee of Healthy Arizona, said the group has not yet crafted the final language of the plan.

Arizonans for Responsible Health Care also is developing a health care measure to be added to the ballot. Under its proposal, all legal residents who have been in the state a minimum of three years would receive health coverage paid for by employers and employees through payroll deductions (Arizona Republic, 9/26).

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© 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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