LINCOLN — Nebraska voters could take a stand against key parts of the national health care overhaul with a proposed constitutional amendment designed to ensure freedom of choice, including the choice to not buy health insurance.
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Whether that stand would make any difference is questionable.
At a minimum, Legislative Resolution 289CA would provide additional venues for debate about the proposal moving through Congress.
State Sen. Beau McCoy of Omaha, who introduced the measure, said he hopes to get it on the November ballot.
“This is intended to give Nebraskans across the state a forum to discuss this issue,” he said.
McCoy contends most Nebraskans support the ideas in the proposed amendment, which seeks to ensure that Nebraskans have freedom of choice in health care, including the choice not to have health insurance.
It would ban any state law that restricts a person's choice of private health care systems or insurance plans or that interferes with a person's choice to pay directly for medical care.
It also would ban any law that penalizes people for their health care and insurance choices.
If passed, the measure could put Nebraska in conflict with the federal legislation. The House and Senate bills would require most Americans to buy health insurance. People without insurance would face penalties.
Because the requirement is in both bills, it likely would remain part of the final proposal.
Sen. Tom White of Omaha, an attorney, said a state constitutional amendment would not stop a federal reform law from taking effect in Nebraska. Federal law prevails if it conflicts with the state constitution, he said.
“This is just political posturing,” White said.
Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh of Omaha, another attorney and a co-sponsor of the proposal, said it isn't clear what would happen if there was a conflict. It would be up to the courts to make that call, he said.
“We're in a very murky area constitutionally,” he said.
McCoy said he expects that if this proposal — or similar measures in other states — passed, it would lead to a legal challenge of federal health care reform.
Arizona voters will decide in November on a health care freedom amendment. Similar proposals have been introduced in 21 states, McCoy said.
Iowa was not among them, although an article on the American Legislative Exchange Council Web site said legislation there is expected.
Jennifer Carter with the Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest said the amendment would be a mistake for Nebraska. The purpose of mandated health insurance is that everyone would share in the responsibility to pay, she said.
The national health care reform debate found other echoes Wednesday in Nebraska. McCoy was one of eight state senators who called on Congress to open the doors on the process of reconciling the House and Senate bills. Reform advocates, meanwhile, urged Nebraska's U.S. senators to make affordability of health care for low- and moderate-income Nebraskans a priority.
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