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Legislators fail in try to put health care to vote
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
Republicans in the Ohio House failed to gain enough Democratic support to ask voters whether Ohio should attempt to stop federal health-care laws from taking effect in the state.
Senate Joint Resolution 1 would have placed a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to prohibit federal requirements that Ohioans purchase health care or insurance.
The resolution required three-fifths of the members of the Senate and House. Republicans control both chambers and had a large enough margin to OK the resolution earlier this month.
But the Wednesday vote in the Ohio House, 59-39, was one shy of the number needed to place the issue on the ballot.
The outcome isn’t necessarily the end of the road for the ballot issue.
A coalition of tea party and like-minded groups is continuing its own petition drive and has more than 385,000 signatures in hand. Members have until late next week to submit petitions to Secretary of State Jon Husted for consideration for the November ballot.
The year-old federal health-care reform package included provisions requiring individuals to buy health insurance and companies to provide benefits to their employees, with fines for those who fail to do so.
The joint resolution debated in the Ohio House would seek to prohibit any law or rule that forces individuals, employers or health-care providers to buy or sell health care or insurance or levies a fine against those that choose not to participate.
Supporters of federal reform said the ballot issue would further hurt residents who don’t have access to health care.
Rep. Bob Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th, said lawmakers should be having a serious discussion about health-care reform and the 1 million-plus Ohioans who don’t have health insurance.
“We’re below South Africa on this discussion here,” he said. “We’re below 27 other nations, and we’re talking about taking health care away from children.”
He added, “What we really should be talking about here is the insurance industry themselves. How much more profit can they make at our expense?”
Opponents of the federal requirements said patients should be allowed to make their own decisions about health care and questioned whether the federal government has the authority to force residents to purchase insurance or health care.
“Preserving the right of patients to pay directly for medical care ensures that treatment [decisions are made by] patients, not government bureaucracies, on what doctors to see and what medical treatment to get,” said Rep. Ron Maag, a Republican from Lebanon.