If you’re reading the tea leaves from yesterday’s election, one thing you should notice is that ObamaCare isn’t popular.
In Arizona and Oklahoma, voters approved ballot measures opposed to the new federal health care law, while a similar measure in Colorado went down to defeat. All three ballot measures echoed the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act, a model legislation put forth by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization of conservative and libertarian legislators across the country. In brief, the act “protects the rights of patients to pay directly for medical services, and it prohibits penalties levied on patients for declining participation in a particular [which is to say, state-run] health plan.”
With yesterday’s election, statutory or constitutional versions of the act have been passed in 7 states: Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Virginia. It’s likely to pass in Florida should the Legislature choose to give it another try; Gov. Charlie Crist, now the ex-governor of the state, vetoed a bill passed by both houses there.
The act is one prong of a legal attack on the new health care act. Another is a number of lawsuits that have been filed by both state governments and private parties against the U.S. government.
