Keep the Ohio Constitution free of unnecessary clutter

We have been traditionally Con- servative when it comes to amending the Ohio Constitution, because once something is in the Constitution it is exceedingly difficult to change.

On that basis, we opposed any number of legalized gambling schemes because in each case, the constitutional amendments virtually assured a state franchise to those individuals who had sponsored the amendment. Even now, we’re seeing some of the blow back from special-interest gambling issues that were inserted in the Constitution.

While health care and gambling would rarely appear in the same sentence in a perfect world, state Issue 3 brings them together. It is a high-stakes game that would make it difficult if not impossible for Ohio to respond to whatever medical realities tomorrow holds.

Issue 3 has an attractive title: “An Amendment to preserve the freedom of Ohioans to choose their health care and health care coverage.” But it is a hastily concocted response to the Affordable Care Act, which detractors tend to call Obamacare.

It is billed as a constitutional amendment that would bar the federal government or state government from imposing any system of government mandated health-care insurance. But the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act is going to be decided in the Supreme Court of the United States. And if the Supreme Court upholds it, all an Ohio constitutional amendment barring it would do would be to place the attorney general of the state of Ohio in the position of having to argue, all the way up to the Supreme Court, that Ohioans have the right to carve an exception for themselves.

It is not just futile political posturing, it is wasteful and potentially destructive.

Difficult to predict implications

Its wording is so broad and so subject to interpretation that it would hamstring state or federal efforts to address the health-care crisis Ohioans face.

It would effectively freeze health-care as we know it, or, in some cases, send it backward.

The present health-care system provides a very high level of care for many, and in most cases that care is paid for through private insurance or government-based programs. But in millions of instances, there is no coverage, and those bills become uncollectable. That cost is eventually passed on to insured patients or to those relatively few people who still pay all their own hospital bills out of pocket.

Clearly this system is unsustainable, and with health-care costs rising at two or three times the rate of inflation, it will become increasingly unsustainable.

We do not know what the answer will be. But we are convinced that our elected state and federal representatives are going to need flexibility in addressing a problem that isn’t going to simply go away.

Their hands should not be tied by an ill-conceived amendment to the Ohio Constitution.

Vote no on Issue 3.