Posted on 04/23/2010 11:58:03 AM PDT by tutstar
By Carol Gentry and Jim Saunders 4/23/2010 © Health News Florida Only hours after the Florida House and Senate voted to “opt out” of the new federal health law, the top U.S. health official said Thursday night that will not be permitted.
Without mentioning any particular state or going into detail, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that state and local officials can vent all they want about a so-called “federal takeover” of health care. But they cannot deny their citizens access to its benefits or requirements, she told the Association of Health Care Journalists. Our eAlert subscribers read it first! “They may want to opt out, but they don’t get to opt out all of their citizens who want and need health care,” Sebelius said.
Florida has an estimated 4 million uninsured, most of whom will be covered when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) takes full effect in 2014.
At least 30 states have passed state constitutional amendment legislation similar to that approved by the Florida Legislature, according to theNational Conference of State Legislatures.
Sebelius said the backlash against the ACA has been ginned up by “misinformation,” much of it deliberate. Thus HHS will be setting up an Internet site to answer frequent questions and a toll-free helpline, similar to that operated for Medicare beneficiaries. HHS staff members present at the conference said they hope to have the Internet site up by July 1 and the help desk soon after.
The opt-out measure passed in the House and Senate on Thursday, a proposed amendment to the Florida Constitution, will go before voters in the November election. The proposal says, in part, that Floridians may not be forced by law to "participate in any health-care system.''
Dividing along almost strict party lines, the House passed the proposal 74-42, and the Senate followed in a 26-11 vote. Republican supporters say the issue is a matter of freedom and preventing encroachment by the federal government.
"The fact that we have to have this debate in the United States of America is troubling and bizarre,'' said Rep. Mike Horner, R-Kissimmee.
Democrats said the proposal's supporters have spent more time trying to prevent expansion of coverage than they have on solving the state's health-care problems.
"That is the folly of this moment, and this constitutional amendment is misguided in the extreme,'' said Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach.
The measure is primarily aimed at part of the health-reform law that will eventually require people to buy health insurance or face financial penalties --- a concept known as the "individual mandate.'' Republicans in Tallahassee and other state capitals have launched numerous efforts to allow people to opt out of the requirement since the Democrat-controlled Congress passed it last month.
At the same time, Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum has launched a separate legal battle challenging the federal law. That lawsuit is pending.
Democrats have repeatedly argued that the legislative attempts to allow Floridians to opt out of the federal law would violate the so-called "supremacy clause'' of the U.S. Constitution. That clause generally gives precedence to federal law over state law when conflicts occur.
"We should not step on the United States Constitution, and that's what you are doing now,'' Davie Democrat Martin Kiar said during the House debate today.
But supporters dispute that the supremacy clause bars the state from allowing people to avoid the individual mandate. "The supremacy clause does not say the feds control the states,'' Melbourne Republican Ritch Workman said.
Supporters also say that even if the proposal ultimately is found to violate the supremacy clause, it would remain in place to protect Floridians from future state health-care requirements. As an example, it would prevent Florida from approving coverage requirements similar to those in Massachusetts.
More broadly, however, Palm Harbor Republican Peter Nehr said it is the Legislature's duty to "step up and reassert the rights of Floridians.''
THIS Floridian might just!
...didn’t they assure us that we could opt out of the plan if we wanted?
My use of the term “silliness” might have been a bit strong. I fully sympathize with most of the philosophical points being made by the majority of posters on this thread. But concerning strategy, I just think that states enacting nullification statutes (full or partial) will just about guarantee negative judgments in the federal courts.
Indeed, but since Obama sees the Constitution as a living document the 10th amendment is now part of an old revision for him.
The Supremacy Clause is operative only in those areas where the central government is authorized to act. To argue this way is to beg the question of the constitutionality of the health act.
Push come to shove, the States don’t have to comply with Federal Court orders, unless Obama decides to send in the Airborne.
Wonder what kind of tune they’ll sing when the Supremes toss this monstrosity out in repayment for the snub at the ‘state of the Union’ debacle-!
Don't forget, congress (I mean our royalty) exempted themselves too.
With 3/5ths of the States already having passed constitutional amendments blocking 0bamacare, we’re almost to the 3/4ths mark needed for states to ratify an amendment to the US Constitution.
I believe the best way to defeat 0bamacare in its entirety is for a Constitutional amendment specifically declaring every aspect of the law as unconstitutional.
Yes, this regime is proving to be a lawyer welfare plan on its own devices...gummit on gummit lawsuits will be entertainment for the masses for decades, in the vein of the OJ trials! What better waste of taxpayer money!
. The entitlement-minded class warfare freeloaders will riot and break things ... and I completely agree w/your conclusion, as well.,,The end result will be Either the death of liberalism in this country....or the death of America as a free nation.
“But concerning strategy, I just think that states enacting nullification statutes (full or partial) will just about guarantee negative judgments in the federal courts.”
Maybe after that we have a Constitutional Convention or a drive to secession. They cannot trample on the will of the people forever. But first
11/2010
11/2012
“The end result will be Either the death of liberalism in this country....or the death of America as a free nation.”
I agree, they have pushed as far as they can push in this socialistic/totalitarian direction.
What a relief! It's with the courts. We'll be alright then!
Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833
Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833
The sad fact is that nations eventually get the government they deserve. As a people, we have only the most tenuous of threads holding us to the traditions of our founding and Constitution. Natural, unalienable rights were once understood and nearly revered by all Americans. Today, the philosophical basis of our founding is but a quaint notion at best, and at worst is ridiculed as an evil foisted on rubes by self serving, rich, white men.
a ping to some thinkers re my thought on opting out of ZEROcare.
I don’t recall if we are allowed to opt out?
I have been thinking though (don’t be so shocked 8^) )
Since the Amish, Muslims, and Christian Scientists can opt out I think that Christians should be able to opt out also but for a different reason.
We all know that there are death panels, whatever they have decided to call them. Christians for the most part believe that God gives and knows the days we have here on earth. IOW God decides when its our time to die. Why should we pay into a system that will deny treatment to some based on the govt’s reason of futility of treatment, , disability etc? That is a violation of my religious beliefs.
Any thoughts?
There are some real smart folks examining that very question. And a good question it is.
And it isn’t just death panels. It’s the funding of the killing of unborn children as well.
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