While health care reform has stalled at the national level, state legislatures have nonetheless been busy crafting objections to the requirements in both the House and Senate health care reform bills that would require everyone to purchase health insurance. The Tea Party movement is behind many of the states' objections to the mandatory insurance requirements but the measures have attracted bi-partisan support in many state legislatures.
The objections ... may turn out to be largely symbolic. But they nonetheless serve notice to President Obama and the Democrats of real anger over their health care plans and signal the potential for political upheaval down the road.
These measures, which are in various stages of ripening in about 36 states, could also pave the way for a major court challenge....
The theory is that broadening the pool of people paying premiums would help insurance companies offset losses they would incur under other provisions of the proposed legislation, like no longer being able to deny coverage to people because of their medical condition or age.
But opponents say that people should not be forced to buy something they do not want or cannot afford, and that trying to make them do so would be unconstitutional. The Virginia Democrats who opposed the State Senate measure said that passing a state law was a waste of time, since Congress had not yet approved a mandate and federal law would override a state law anyway.
Whether that is the case is not entirely clear. Many constitutional scholars say that federal law generally trumps state law, but conservative lawyers are gearing up to prove them wrong.
It is somewhat unusual for so many states to move against a federal proposal before it even becomes law, which adds to the uncertainty.
"With no final version of federal health reform, no one can safely say right now how such a state law would be applied to something new on the federal level," said Richard Cauchi, health program director for the National Conference of State Legislatures.
For the full story on the New York Times Prescriptions Health Care Blog, click here.
