FAQ
What does the Health Care Freedom Act do?
Why should Missouri protect the right of patients to pay directly for medical care?
How will the Health Care Freedom Act affect Medicaid, SCHIP, or Medicare?
Why does Missouri need the Health Care Freedom Act?
Does supporting the Health Care Freedom Act mean that I am against health reform?
Doesn’t the 10th Amendment protect Missouri from federal encroachment?
How will the Health Care Freedom Act affect doctors, hospitals, or insurance companies?
Does the Health Care Freedom Act enable Missouri to block any kind of federal health reform?
Doesn’t this measure tie Missouri’s hands with future reforms?
Is there a national precedent for this sort of vote?
What does the Health Care Freedom Act do?
The Health Care Freedom Act will preserve and protect the rights of individuals to make their own health care and health insurance choices. Specifically, it would protect the rights of patients to pay directly for medical services, and it would prohibit any individual or employer from being penalized for not purchasing government-defined health insurance.
Why should Missouri protect the right of patients to pay directly for medical care?
Single-payer systems, like in Canada, make it illegal for citizens to go outside of the government’s health care plan and contract for their own medical services. The Health Care Freedom Act would make this fundamental provision of single-payer health care unlawful.
How will the Health Care Freedom Act affect Medicaid, SCHIP, or Medicare?
The Health Care Freedom Act WILL NOT in any way impact the funding of, or functioning of Medicaid, SCHIP, or Medicare. The ability of individuals to choose their health care providers and health care plans would be protected.
Why does Missouri need the Health Care Freedom Act?
Efforts within the Federal Government threaten to put complete control over individual’s health care in the hands of government bureaucrats, partisan politicians, and appointed “experts.” Government control means you will have less freedom to make the health care choices that are best for you and your family. Patients should have the right to pay directly for medical services with their own money. That’s because when consumers control the dollars, the patient makes the medical treatment decisions. When the government controls the dollars, they make treatment decisions based on what’s best for the government, not what’s best for the patient.
Preserving the rights of patients to pay directly for medical care ensures that patients–not government bureaucrats–decide which doctor to see or what medical treatment to choose.
Why should Missouri’s Health Care Freedom Act block penalties for individuals or employers who don’t purchase federal health insurance?
It is important for people to have health insurance coverage, but a government requirement to purchase health insurance is ineffective, bureaucratic, and costly. The Health Care Freedom Act would strike at the heart of individual and employer mandates that just don’t work.
Employer mandates also don’t work. Hawaii has had a “pay or play” employer mandate for 35 years, and the number of uninsured people there has remained the same. What’s worse is that when the government forces businesses to buy health insurance for their workers, it really means higher taxes and fewer jobs. That’s because when businesses face cost increases, they’ll pass on those costs in the form of increased prices, job cuts, or wage freezes.
An individual mandate would harm patients, and an employer mandate would threaten our fragile economy. The Health Care Freedom Act would protect Missourians from these threats.
Does supporting the Health Care Freedom Act mean that I am against health reform?
Absolutely not! The Health Care Freedom Act simply states that the cornerstone of any future health care reform must be the preservation and protection of the right of individuals to make their own health care choices without fear of penalty and/or fines.
Doesn’t the 10th Amendment protect Missouri from federal encroachment?
States have the rights to assert their 10th Amendment powers and affirm those rights in the state constitution. Two hundred and twenty years ago, some founders questioned the need for the First and Second Amendments, and the rest of the Bill of Rights, to be in the U.S. Constitution. Our rights have been preserved by the First and Second Amendments. The Health Care Freedom Act will protect the right to health care freedom in the same way.
In addition, this is more than an issue of “federal encroachment.” Threats of single-payer health care, or an individual/employer mandate, also abound at the state level. This year, many (15+) states have introduced legislation to enact state-based, single-payer health care. Countless other states have proposed requirements for individuals or employers to purchase health coverage, or else pay a fine to the state. The threat of this occurring would be eliminated here in Missouri if the Health Care Freedom Act passed.
How will the Health Care Freedom Act affect doctors, hospitals, or insurance companies?
Doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies are not directly affected by the Health Care Freedom Act. Patients are the only entity protected by the Health Care Freedom Act.
Does the Health Care Freedom Act enable Missouri to block any kind of federal health reform?
The Health Care Freedom Act will prevent Missouri legislators from enacting state legislation that would establish penalties within an individual or employer mandate, or forbid patients from paying directly for medical services.
The Health Care Freedom Act would not attempt to block implementation of any federal law as long as the federal law does not require an individual/employer mandate, or forbid patients from paying directly for medical services. Also, the Health Care Freedom Act does not preclude citizens from accepting/joining “Obamacare,” the proposed federal “public plan” or “national health insurance exchange.”
What happens if an individual mandate, an employer mandate, or single-payer health care is passed at the federal level—and if Missouri also passes the Health Care Freedom Act?
If there is a clash between federal law and the Health Care Freedom Act, there will be litigation. Of course, nothing will happen if whatever is passed in Congress does not require participation in a health system and does not forbid people from purchasing services outside of the system. But if one of the Health Care Freedom Act provisions is triggered, the federal government could file a lawsuit challenging it. Individuals who wish to violate the federal law by not purchasing federal health care could file a lawsuit challenging the federal law.
Doesn’t this measure tie Missouri’s hands with future reforms?
No. It just creates two guidelines for future health reform: the right to opt out of a government-sanctioned health care system and the right to spend your own money on lawful medical services.
Is there a national precedent for this sort of vote?
In June 2009, the Arizona legislature passed Health Care Freedom Act legislation, which our Missouri legislation is modeled upon. Forty-two states have some form of the Health Care Freedom Act legislation in progress, and Missouri will be the first referendum on federal health care mandates in the nation on August 3, 2010.
Why do the media diminish the strength of state sovereignty by stating that federal law usually trumps state law?
For well over 100 years, case law and legal battles have contained conflicts between federal laws and state laws. States have frequently questioned the legitimacy of federal statutes in many different areas... this is nothing new. Depending on the issue and the way the federal statutes have been challenged, sometimes the Courts have ruled in favor of the federal law (Supremacy Clause, federal pre-emption, interstate commerce). But there are many examples of federal courts ruling in favor of the States. Being that the HCFA begs a question that has never before been presented to the Courts (whether or not the federal government can force a citizen of a state to purchase a product, health insurance), it is perfectly sensible to argue that Obamacare will be ruled upon as unconstitutional by the Courts. The HCFA will force that question. What is the significance of the Health Care Freedom Act passing as a statute instead of a constitutional amendment? The Commonwealth of Virginia has already enacted their version of the HCFA by statute without referendum. It is now on their statute books. In Missouri, the statute would give our Attorney General the authority to defend any citizen prosecuted for not purchasing Obamacare. Arizona will have a constitutional referendum on their State ballot in November, and they have already enacted their version of the HCFA by statute as well.
