State amendments could limit health overhaul

Excerpts from article By Monica Davey
New York Times / September 29, 2009

ST. PAUL - In more than a dozen statehouses across America, a small but growing group of lawmakers has been pressing for state constitutional amendments that would outlaw a crucial element of the health care plans under discussion in Washington: the requirement that nearly everyone buy insurance or pay a penalty.

Approval of the measures, the lawmakers suggest, would set off a legal battle over the rights of states versus the reach of federal power, an issue that is, for some, central to the current health care debate but also one that has tentacles stretching into a broad range of other matters, including education and drug policy.

Opponents of the measures and some constitutional scholars say the proposals are mostly symbolic, intended to send a message of political protest, and have little chance of succeeding in court over the long run. But they acknowledge the measures could create legal collisions that would be costly and cause delays to health care changes and could be a rallying point for opponents in the increasingly tense debate.

The groundbreaking 2006 law in Massachusetts requires nearly everyone to have health insurance or pay a tax penalty of as much as $912 a year, though there are exemptions for financial hardship.

In Arizona - with help from Dr. Eric Novack, an orthopedic surgeon who says his intent was not “some grand secessionist plot’’ but a health care overhaul with protections for individuals’ rights - an amendment first went before voters in 2008. The idea lost, but by fewer than 9,000 votes among more than two million cast. This year, Arizona’s Legislature, dominated by Republicans, voted to send the question back to the ballot in 2010.
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