As many of you know, I had the privilege of co-sponsoring, carrying, and helping to lead the fight on the House Floor on behalf of House Concurrent Resolution 5007, the Health Care Freedom Amendment, and Senate Bill 14, the Health Care Freedom Act. HCR 5007, which sought to place on the ballot for voter approval, in November 2012, an amendment to the Kansas Constitution adding a New Section 16 to preserve the right and freedom of Kansans to provide for their own health care, passed the House overwhelmingly, but unfortunately did not get out of the Senate. This prevented you, the citizens of Kansas, from having your say on this important issue at the polls next November. However, I am happy to report that SB 14, the Health Care Freedom Act, which sought the same goal legislatively, was ultimately included in our Omnibus Insurance Bill, HB 2182, which was passed by the legislature and signed into law by the governor.
The Health Care Freedom Act will preserve the right of a person, employer or health care provider in Kansas to be free from federal or state laws or rules compelling participation in any health care system or compelling the purchase of health insurance. It will preserve the right of a person or employer to purchase lawful health care services directly from a health care provider. It will preserve the right of a health care provider to accept direct payment from a person or employer for lawful health care services. And it will preserve the right to purchase or sell health insurance in private health care systems.
Make no mistake – our vote on this measure in the Kansas Legislature this year was nothing less than a referendum on the continued viability in Kansas of the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution. As you know, our federal government is one of specifically enumerated powers. The 10th Amendment provides that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited to it by the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”
Through expansive application of the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution, the federal government has already intruded into virtually every aspect of our lives – from telling us what kind of light bulbs we can put in our lamps to how much water our toilets can flush. By mandating, with sanctions, that all Kansans must purchase health insurance, the Federal Patient Protection And Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”, also known as ObamaCare) makes the invasion of our personal liberties complete. In doing so, it expands the commerce clause beyond all recognition and effectively nullifies the 10th Amendment. For if the federal government can order individual Kansans to purchase health insurance today under penalty of fines for noncompliance, there is truly no limit to what else it can order us to do tomorrow – what car to buy, how much to spend on groceries or housing – all in the name of the national economy.
That is precisely why I remain firm in my conviction that the lawsuit being pursued by the attorneys general of 26 states, notably including Kansas, seeking invalidation of ObamaCare as unconstitutional will ultimately prevail. I believe that, as early as next year, the U.S. Supreme Court will uphold the initial decision of the Florida Federal District Court and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that the so-called individual mandate provided in the PPACA is an unconstitutional infringement of states’ rights under the 10th Amendment, and the further decision of the Florida court that it is not “severable” from the rest of the act, rendering ObamaCare unconstitutional and unenforceable in its entirety. This in turn is why I have adamantly opposed any efforts in Kansas this year to expend any taxpayer resources to begin design and implementation of health insurance exchanges in Kansas, to accept the so-called Early Innovator Grant or any other federal funds for this purpose, or to take any other action in contravention of the state’s official position, as presented in this lawsuit, that ObamaCare will be overturned as unconstitutional.
My sponsorship, advocacy and vote for the Health Care Freedom Act this year, and its ultimate passage, announced loudly and clearly that the 10th Amendment is alive and well in Kansas, that no government authority – in Washington or Topeka – can tell Kansans what health care or health insurance to buy, and that there are limits on the federal and state governments’ power to invade our privacy and interfere with our personal liberties and freedom.
I still maintain that the Kansas Legislature should revisit the Health Care Freedom Amendment to the Kansas Constitution next year as well, and I will continue to fight for its passage. Voters in Kansas and across America have themselves already spoken loudly and clearly at the polls last November that they object to the inroads being made on their personal liberties and freedom by the uncontrolled growth of government power to regulate and tax every aspect of their lives. We owe it to our constituents, to you, the citizens of Kansas, to give you the opportunity to vote up or down the question of whether you want to preserve your right to be free from the health insurance mandate of the Affordable Care Act or any other federal or state laws or rules compelling your participation in any health care system or compelling your purchase of health insurance.
