|
 |
3/15/2010
Nullification? Might not need it this time around
Virginia says no way will they allow the federal government to mandate their residents purchase health insurance and as such is seeking to nullify the federal law.
The Virginia Legislature this week is poised to become the first state to pass legislation that says citizens cannot be required to have medical insurance.
Dozens of other states are considering similar measures, possibly setting the stage for one of the greatest tests of federal power over the states since the civil rights era.
If states are allowed to opt out of the mandate, the foundation of Obama’s effort would be undermined, turning the nascent revolt here into one with national implications.
… Virginia’s lawmakers are focused on constitutional questions and the power of states to run their own affairs.
Wisconsin State Representative Leah Vukmir says it just right: "The real goal of national health insurance exchange isn't competition -- it's a federal power grab that flies in the face of the Tenth Amendment.”
Well, Wisconsin is on of those “dozens of other states” attempting a similar nullification effort. Senate Joint Resolution 62 would create a constitutional amendment which requires adoption by two successive legislatures, and ratification by the people, before it can become effective. It’s pretty straightforward:
The people have the right to enter into private contracts with health care providers for health care services and to purchase private health care coverage. The legislature may not require any person to obtain or maintain health insurance coverage or to participate in any health care system or plan.
Senator Leibham is the bill’s chief sponsor, joined by Senators Lazich, Kapanke, Darling, Grothman, A. Lasee, Hopper and Schultz; and Representatives Vos, Davis, Pridemore, Suder, Petersen, Meyer, Nygren, Kestell, Townsend, Kerkman, Tauchen, Kramer, Knodl, Gunderson, LeMahieu, Strachota, Honadel, Lothian, Kleefisch, Spanbauer, Ballweg, Nass and Ziegelbauer.
This is very serious stuff. Normally I’d say If your state representative or state senator isn’t on the list of supporters above (all Republicans by the way, except Rep. Ziegelbauer, D-Manitowoc), call them and ask them to add their name. I’d also suggest railing on Sen. Erpenbach (D-Waunakee), chair of the Senate Health, Health Insurance, Privacy, Property Tax Relief and Revenue (whew) Committee, who so far hasn’t taken up the bill.
But I don’t think we need it!
(It’s a good thing too. I can’t imagine Erpenbach will allow the bill to be heard in committee. On top of that, there’s a good bit of doubt that these state challenges would stand up to constitutional tests - yeah, explain that one – geeez.)
Timothy Jost, via the New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that while the Senate bill imposes a mandate and imposes a slap-on-the-wrist penalty for not complying with the mandate, the penalty may not even be enforceable!
… the mandate is particularly vulnerable from an enforcement perspective. It essentially imposes a tax penalty (to begin in 2014 and to be fully phased in by 2016) on uninsured individuals who do not purchase health insurance, subject to a number of exceptions for those who cannot afford health insurance or who oppose it for religious reasons. Individuals are supposed to pay this penalty with their annual income taxes, but the Senate bill waives criminal penalties and prohibits the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from imposing liens or levies on a taxpayer’s property for failure to pay. Compliance will, therefore, be largely voluntary (although the IRS can still make a tax resister’s life miserable, whether or not it can ultimately collect). The state bills can thus be seen as invitations to civil disobedience that counsel state citizens to “violate the federal law, wave this statute in their face, and dare them to come after you.”
Time to wave the statute in somebody’s face.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
Jo,
So you believe that people shouldn't have to pay for their own health insurance if they're not covered by another plan?
dave allen (Mon Mar 15 07:19:02 2010)
Again, we are offered the question: Which is to be the master, the federal government or the People?
Brian Heyer, CPA (Mon Mar 15 09:20:08 2010)
Brian,
I have seen time and time again in this forum and elsewhere the constant drumbeat that people should be responsible for themselves and that people are using services that are paid for by others. So, what is your specific proposal as to how people who wish to be uninsured pay for their medical care, and who enforces that? And it doesn't count if you say they're on their own because that doesn't happen as you well know. Someone pays for the 21 year old who breaks a leg and is uninsured and has no assets and right now that someone is me.
dave allen (Mon Mar 15 09:39:03 2010)
Dave, it's very simple. You tell your dr. you're going to pay cash, and he charges less than if he had to go through a middleman. Yes, I know people who do this. Next, you get MAJOR MEDICAL high-deductible insurance and a MSA to cover you for catastrophic expenses. (These same people also do that.) Works just fine!
As to 21-year-olds who break legs, they are billed and they do pay in installments if they are not insured. Wages can even be garnished. "But they don't work"--well, they SHOULD. If they have to get out of WI to find work, so be it.
Somehow the deadbeats that end up NOT paying their bills, have enough to get tattoos, cigarettes, cell phones, jewelry, and junk food. So they can certainly pay towards their bills, too. I suggest they be FORCED to work at something and wages garnished to pay.
emily matthews (Mon Mar 15 16:40:36 2010)
Emily, You're dreaming. You may have a personal opinion about deadbeats etc. that really drives you crazy. Nevertheless a huge driver of my insurance rates and everyone else is the fact that the uninsured get medical care and don't pay for it. Some of these uninsured can pay for insurance and should pay. But assuming that the uninsured will pay cash (or be denied care) just because you say so is totally false and will never happen. Go ahead and be pissed off at this group that you say you know so well. But the costs won't go down one bit because of your self righteousness. The only solution for people to get insurance rather than being uninsured(assuming they can afford to buy insurance) is they have to buy insurance....Get it? Have to buy insurance. Plain and simple.
dave allen (Mon Mar 15 19:20:20 2010)
|
|
Blog Archives
| 2010 |
  September
|
August
|
July
|
June
|
May
|
April
|
March
|
February
|
January
• Solberg: Healing After an Abortion
• Basketball fans eyeing extension of Miller Park sales tax
• Nanny sex-ed bill goes to Doyle
• A first. Village limits pension contribution for employees
• Nanny State update: Toothbrushing mandated
• Obama pushes education inflation
• WI Investment Board votes to borrow to juice up returns
• So Republicans have brought nothing to the table?
• You have got to be kidding me
• Nygren: Governor Continues Terms of Failure in State of the State
• Sen. Fitzgerald: Governor down the wrong track at high speed
• Phosphorus is the new CO2. $Billions in Wisconsin
• More Obama giveaways
• A reprimand? Would you keep him on the job?
• Burri: Sarah Palin for Prez troubles me
• Quote of the Day – Obama after the pie-eating contest
• Populism, abused and trampled
• Fitzgerald: Senate Republicans Propose Real Job Creation Agenda
• Stripped down health insurance – it’s about time
• Ok GOP, scrap the Party of NO; time to lead
• No way Feingold is a Coakley. Is Wall a Brown?
• Burri: Conservatives off the chart for a RINO?
• Paltry quid pro quo?
• Doyle says ARRA has ‘created or retained’ 44,000 WI jobs
• Does most of the public fall for this stuff?
• When you get signatures, always get a couple extra
• Blame it on the outmoded computers
• Scott Brown victory does not scuttle health bill
• 8th Congressional Candidate Forum, Jan. 25
• Scott Walker Meet-and-greet, Monday, Jan. 18
• Aren’t consumers taxpayers too?
• MORE taxes on investment income - dreadful and wrong
• Join the blaze orange army and say ‘Enough is Enough’
• The future of government-run health care
• Tax on banks is a really bad idea
• Roth, Savard on the stump, grassroots style
• Savard speaking in Appleton, 8 PM, Wed., Jan. 13.
• Rahmlow: Savard, Bies frontrunners for State Senate
• Burri: Failing Political Correctness 101
• School contracts and Race to the Top
• Senator Feingold worrisome and big red flags
• Psephological?
• This is really important. Contact Rep. Kagen. Now. Please.
• This is exactly what we need from Governor Doyle
• This guy is my hero
• Why am I not surprised?
• Talk health reform with Feingold (Th), Petri (today)
• Give the Mayor power over MPS - if he can break contracts
• Burri: Yup, Dems really are going to bypass a conference
• The $2.7 billion Wisconsin deficit no one told you about
• Walker launches county accountability website
• Rahmlow: Why is Van Hollen dodging the Nebraska deal?
|
| 2009 |
December
|
November
|
October
• The Lawton-Bader files
• Yup, it’s the TAX LEVY, not the tax RATE
• Ellis: costly automobile insurance laws must be rolled back
• If not Barrett, who?
• The subsidy game
• Burri: Bailouts, Banks, Health Care, and the Mob
• Attend Appleton Schools budget meeting tonight
• A public option WON’T increase costs? That’s delusional!
• Appleton Schools budget meeting Monday
• Wisconsin should be screaming for accountability
• Burri: If anything, we need more obstructionism around here
• WI on the leading edge - in the wrong direction
• Rep. Montgomery: Utility Customers Join State’s Crime-Fighting Efforts
• Public Conservation and Recreation Lands Total 16.5% of State
• In the crow's nest of the Titanic, shouting 'Iceberg!'
• Is Rep. Nelson a political hack?
• Health care: The road ahead will be brutal
• Kagen's pandering again
• Birthers - good stuff for you
• How much do we bend over backward for seniors?
• The trouble with health care is paying for it
• Two-parent families: The Gold Standard
• Burri: Kids... the joys and blessings
• Very, very worried about health care
• Rep. Huebsch: Wisconsin is proof government health care isn’t the answer
• School district contracts push up tax levy
• What? Obama, the Peace Prize?
• TODAY - hearing on Campaign Finance Reform
• Appleton School District tax levy up way too much
• CBO report is out - and the bill isn't even written yet?
• So, how much do YOU budget for health care?
• Burri: Copenhagen trip was amateurish
• “Sotomayor, you have blood on your hands...”
• Cap and Trade. Always follow the money
• Rep. Kagen gets (almost) free health services
• I actually agree with Rep. Kagen
• Future Wisconsin Conference for Conservatives, October 10, Wauwatosa
|
September
|
August
|
July
|
June
|
May
|
April
|
March
|
February
|
January
|
| 2008 |
December
|
November
|
October
|
September
|
August
|
July
|
June
|
May
|
April
|
March
• Important votes Tuesday, including Appleton Common Council
• Democrats are becoming supply siders??
• Further debunking Hillary myths
• WEAC has created an unsustainable monopoly
• From Mark Gundrum: One of the greatest honors an American can experience
• 'Operation Chaos' working?
• Joe Martin the best candidate in Appleton's 8th
• State programs to cut? - Volume II
• Oh the naivete of youth
• Not just disingenuous - flat wrong
• Steve - you will be missed
• Make cuts only AFTER you're elected....
• Getting serious: What programs can we cut?
• Rep. Steve Kagen joining me on Jerry Bader Show today
• Rep. Van Roy: Dental Care Pilot Program
• Has Dave Obey turned the corner on earmarks?
• Speaker Huebsch: Governor turns down Federal Aid?
• Mark Rahmlow: "We're Broke."
• As taxpayers, how do we know if it's a Chevy or a Lexus?
• This is trash talk - about a veteran
• Frank Lasee: Take time to get the Compact right
• 'The Gableman Ad' - is it racist?
• Roth thankful, Kagen shaking money tree
• Gov. Doyle's office not enamored with Freedom of Information
• Governor Doyle will never do it
• Leadership on smoking ban? Not Hanna
• Rep. Van Roy speaks out about smear ads
• You're threatening me about potholes?
• Losing the Hastert seat is NOT a trend and NOT curtians for the GOP
• First suggestion for 'slashing' programs
• Big money-saver for municipalities
• More one time fixes. Nuts.
• Any chances???
• I'm doing the Jerry Bader Show, today, the 11th
• Representative Frank Lasee: Final Waltz of the Season
• Guest Blog: It's not the county's business to be in the nursing home business
• Yup, Hillary won Texas and Ohio
• Gableman/Butler race featured - and it isn't pretty
• Lies from Planned Parenthood and NARAL
• He who sacrifices liberty.....
• Duh.
• The Troha sentencing, Doyle and that $200K
• Guns, passion and "originality"
• How hard is it anyway, to shut down a government program?
• Voting is a PRIVILEGE. And so are property taxes....
• Guest Blog: Governor Doyle, cancel your Ireland trip
|
February
|
January
|
| 2007 |
December
|
November
|
October
|
September
|
August
|
July
|
June
|
May
|
April
|
March
|
February
|
January
• Lots of ideas. No money.
• The Cigarette Tax - "Poor Policy Instrument?"
• School budget Lite?
• Frankenstein - not in the library, but in the legislature
• A librarian, a legislator, a president
• $1.25/pack - NO, NO, NO, and NO
• Kagen and Reagan in the same breath?
• Menasha: behind the 8-ball, but not biting the dust
• Any way you slice it, Wisconsin government wants (further) in on health care
• The World is Flat...what about health care?
• The PAC - too precious to fail. Day 3
• News follow-ups: Appleton West, Kagen at the White House
• Fox Cities PAC - too precious to fail - Day 2
• Fox Cities PAC - too precious to fail
• New Transit Tax coming your way
• Rep. Petri has his finger in the dike - I guess
• AASD Retirement Costs Burdensome
• Health care, health care, health care, health care
• Water rate increase was no slam dunk
• Education for all is just a bad dream
• New Year's resolutions from a parade snob
|
| 2006 |
December
|
November
|
October
|
September
|
| 2000 |
May
|
|
