Ohio Project (please sign petition if registered in Ohio)

The Ohio Project is a grassroots effort of Ohio citizens to bring a proposed state constitutional amendment to Ohio's November ballot in order to preserve the freedom of Ohioans to individually choose their health care and health insurance. The amendment, drafted by the 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, would protect Ohioans from the financial burdens of complying with new federal mandates and from the fines or penalties resulting from non-compliance. In short, it protects Ohioans' freedom to choose. The amendment also prohibits government from barring the purchase or sale of health care or health care insurance.

This Amendment does nothing to influence or interfere with voluntary insurance and health care arrangements, whether between you and your doctor, you and your insurer, or you and your employer, other than to protect them from being supplanted by the federal government preemption of the health care and health care insurance field.

This Amendment explicitly does not interfere with state, federal, and locals laws and programs — including Medicare, Medicade, and workers compensation programs — that were in place on or before March 19, 2010, the day before the federal Patient Protection and Affordability Act was passed by the U.S. Congress.

The Line has Been Drawn, Will You Defend Your Freedom?

An Open Letter to Our Supporters Regarding the June 30th Petition Filing Deadline

June 20, 2010

Editors note: After reading the announcement below, please make sure to read the Questions and Answers that follow. We believe it will answer most questions you may have about the petition drive.

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We are announcing our intention to file the Health Care Freedom Amendment sometime in late September, early October of 2010. This will place the amendment on the November 2011 ballot.

Delays from Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner's office gave us less than sixty days to collect 600,000 signatures to make the June 30, 2010 filing deadline for the November 2010 ballot. This would be a nearly impossible task for a well-established, well-funded organization, let alone a dedicated group of volunteers that are building an organized project from scratch which did not exist just two months ago. We are very optimistic about our goals going forward.

As John McAvoy, the Northwest Ohio Regional Coordinator, explains, "most initiatives are backed financially by large corporate interest. Not this one. We are average, everyday citizens doing this ourselves, we've organized ourselves, we've read up on the rules and laws, and we're teaching ourselves how to circulate petitions, and to do it correctly. We make our own training videos, our own graphics and signs, heck, we even print our own petition packets at home on our laser printers."

Warren Edstrom, the project State Coordinator, puts it this way, "Our number one goal is to get the Ohio Health Care Petition on the ballot. Period. It would've been nice to make it happen in 2010, but there are huge advantages by waiting until 2011. Ironically, the delays caused by Jennifer Brunner's office may very well have been the saving grace of this project. If it hadn't been for her delay, we would've made the 2010 ballot, but then would be facing the November elections with only four months to raise funds to defend and promote the initiative. By placing it on the 2011 ballot, this gives us well over a year to do the fundraising to ensure passage in November 2011. Day by day, momentum is building, more and more people are learning about the initiative, more and more circulators are coming on board. Critical mass is building. Our goal is to restore our freedom of choice that was taken away by the Obamacare mandate. We'll work as long as we need to. We are an incredibly dedicated group of volunteers."

With thousands of volunteers statewide and tens of thousands of signatures pouring into the Columbus headquarters each week, this extra time will guarantee Ohioans will have the chance to vote whether they should have the freedom to make their own choice, or give up that freedom and let the government choose for them.

If you want to make your own choice, you need to do two things: 1) sign the petition, and 2) get involved by becoming a petition circulator. Help in any capacity you can, it's your choice. Comprehensive, do-it-yourself training is available at www.TheOhioProject.com

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