Kansas Becomes Latest State to Defend Health Care Choice

The LegislativeExchange American Council (ALEC), membershipassociation largest individual nation state legislators, congratulated the representatives of PeggyMast and Brenda Landwehr Kansas and Kansas Senator Mary Pilcher Cook for announcingtheir intention to introduce a constitutional amendment to protect ofindividuals right to make their own decisions on health care. Kansas becomes the 19thstate where lawmakers have introduced or will introduce, after Alec legislationmodeled choice in the Canada Health Act. (Logo: http://www. NewsCom. Com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091014/ALECLOGO) "the attention of federal efforts to reform health may include a requirement that health insurance individualspurchase, and a choice of public call "which results in fewer choices for consumers and new government mandates," said Linda IowaRepresentative Upmeyer, minority whip, family nurse and chairman of ALEC Health and Human Services Task Force. "Americans do not needmore government mandates, we have real consumer choice. Alec OfChoice freedom in the Health Act is designed to protect individual rights and ourfreedom to purchase health insurance of our choice, or not, "he added. Kansas constitutional amendment preserves the rights of individuals to paydirectly for medical care – something not allowed in a single payer countrieslike Canada – and prohibits any person from being punished by the government notpurchasing insurance defined. Any attempt by the State to require anindividual to purchase health insurance – or ban an individual frompurchasing services outside the health care needs – berendered would be unconstitutional. The measure also can cause a crash ifCongress federalism passes a law with any of these provisions. Kansas now joins lawmakers in seven states (AK, GA, LA, MO, MS, NH, and UT) that have already publicly announced its intention to introduce legislation to protect its citizens from health mandates. Another 11 states havealready made or pre-filed similar legislation (AZ, FL, IN, MN, ND, NM, MI, OH, PA, WV, WY). The Arizona measure, which passed the legislature in June, Willbe put before voters on the ballot in 2010. "ALEC members in the states are also working to enact real health care reformsolutions which can – as president Obama has called for – to increase competition, reduce costs and expand coverage. These include users of other state purchasehealth insurance, providing tax relief on health insurance for people topurchase and a cost benefit review of governmentmandated insurance benefits, "said Christie Herrera, director of Human Alec Healthand Services Task Force. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the nation largestnonpartisan, individual membership organization of state legislators.