Florida Judge Tosses Referendum Off Fall Ballot

The cause of a popular backlash against ObamaCare took a blow this week, as a judge in Florida tossed off the fall ballot the state’s edition of the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act.

According to the Miami Herald, “State law requires ballot summaries to be clear and accurate. Circuit Court Judge James Shelfer said a proposed ballot summary for the amendment contains several phrases that are political and list issues that are not addressed in the proposal.”

The American Legislative Exchange Council, which developed the act as a piece of model legislation, has condemned the judge’s ruling. It adds that the act has been put into law in five states.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/30/1753003/judge-takes-gop-backed-proposed.html#ixzz0vBDYMukw

Medical-Tort Law: Ranking the States

How much do a state’s laws governing medical malpractice and other torts relevant to health care affect the availability of care?  Plenty!

Lawrence J. McQuillan’s & Hovannes Abramyan’s 2010 edition of the U.S. Tort Liability Index, which has a number of measurements included in the U.S. Index of Health Ownership, ranks states according to 42 variables.

Eight of the measurements in the U.S. Tort Liability Index are relevant to the U.S Index of Health Ownership: One output and seven inputs. The previous edition of the U.S Index of Health Ownership included six measurements of medical tort, but McQuillan & Abramyan have discovered more variables for their 2010 edition of the Tort Liability Index, allowing more detailed measurement.

As a partial update of the U.S. Index of Health Ownership, this brief analysis calculates a medical-tort index from a simple average of the eight relevant variables.  Mississippi, Nevada, Michigan, Colorado, and Louisiana lead the pack; while Vermont, Rhode Island, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Iowa bring up the rear. Even the leaders, however, lag in some measurements.

Mississippi, for example, leads on procedural rules: Pre-trial screening or arbitration and conditions on the use of expert witnesses. However, it does not limit lawyers’ ability to abuse their privilege by limiting their share of awards. Colorado and Louisiana also fail to impose limits. Unfortunately, the laggards do not show a similar pattern: The bottom five states perform poorly in all eight measurements.

Reducing the burden of medical tort is critical to increasing Americans’ health ownership and reducing medical costs that curtail our access to care. Some progress is evident, but states aiming to improve their medical-tort laws still have a long way to go.

Freedom to Breastfeed

Who should decide whether breast milk or formula is healthiest for a baby–the parents, or other residents of their state? Florida law clearly supports the parents’ right to make this choice; should a mother decide to breastfeed, the law allows her to do so in any public place where she is permitted to be.

Recently, the principal of an elementary school ignored that law and told a mother not to breastfeed in the school lobby.

These teachers defended the principal’s stance:

“She does not have the right to impose her agenda on other people’s children without the written consent of the parent or guardian of those children,” said teacher Shannon Lehmann.

“A parent, for whatever reason, should not be able to disrupt our routine because she feels she needs to educate us all in her campaign to make public breastfeeding a normal occurrence regardless of how others are affected,” said teacher Sharon Albanese.

I hope the district will disregard these arguments and follow Florida law. If parents are to be free to make personal health choices for their children, they must also be free to follow through on those choices.

You Don’t Say, Florida Edition

The St. Petersburg  Times: “Health care reform votes might make Democrats vulnerable in midterm elections.”

Insurance Exchanges: A New Battleground in the Abortion Debate

From Florida, legislation awaiting the signature of Gov. Charlie Crist, ”

prohibits private health insurers from covering abortions if the plan is subsidized by the federal or state government. This includes health insurance offered through exchanges and tax breaks offered to small businesses to provide coverage, as designed in the recently approved federal healthcare law.

Given his recent political calculations, I’m expecting Crist to veto the bill. (The feature of the bill drawing the most attention has to do with ultrasounds and abortions).

“Health reform” is the gift that keeps giving–in this case, yet another battleground in the abortion debate.

Health Care Freedom Act in Florida (Video)

With the Florida Legislature having agreed to place the Florida Health Care Freedom Act on the fall ballot, the action moves to the general population. Voters will decide whether the act will become part of the Florida constitution.

A project called Liberty for Florida is on the pro-amendment side, and puts out the following video, with sound bites from legislative leaders on the issue.

No Major Changes to Florida Medicaid–For Now

The Florida Legislature has been considering a major change in that state’s Medicaid program, essentially putting everyone into an HMO. That won’t happen this year.

[Inter.esting. The URL for that link, which is to a story in the Orlando Sentimenl, is "OrlandoSentinel.com/news/politics -- fair enough, but let's continue /obama-inauguration/fl-florida-budget-medicaid ... various numbers.] With the end of the session closing in, there isn’t enough time to finish the job.]

The Miami Herald gives a more full treatment to changes to the state’s health care budget, which includes some wrangling over giving extra money to two major hospitals.

Florida Legislature Puts Health Care Freedom Measure on the Ballot

The American Legislative Exchange Council announces that the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act will be on the general election ballot in Florida this fall.

Here’s the press release:

Today, Florida’s Health Care Freedom Act (HJR 37/SJR 72), sponsored by Florida Representative Scott Plakon and Florida Senator Carey Baker, passed the House and Senate and will appear on the November ballot. And yesterday, Mississippi Representatives Alex Monsour and Steven Palazzo received preliminary approval to place the Health Care Freedom Act on the 2011 or 2012 ballot. The legislation—which blocks a state or federal requirement for individuals to purchase health insurance—is modeled after the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act now introduced or announced in 42 states.

“Protecting the individual freedom for people to make their own health care decisions is a priority in the states,” said ALEC health task force director Christie Herrera, who is coordinating the nationwide effort. “The amount of support from state legislators and policy makers for this legislation has been tremendous,” she added.

ALEC’s Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act has already been enacted statutorily by the Virginia, Idaho, and Arizona legislatures, and constitutional amendments in Oklahoma, Arizona, and Florida will appear before voters on the November ballot.

Statutory measures have also passed one chamber each in Georgia and Tennessee, and will soon reach Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry’s desk.

Constitutional amendments have passed one chamber in the Missouri legislature, and will soon be considered by the Louisiana House.

A complete map with links to the legislation in each state is available online at www.alec.org.

HMOs for All in Florida Medicaid

Remember when HMO-rage was, well, all the rage? Get ready for more, as HMOs may become more powerful, thanks to the new health care “reform” law.

Roughly half of the newly insured people, nationally, will depend on Medicaid. Florida, which will be forced to expand Medicaid under the new law, is looking at putting more of its population in Medicaid HMOs.

Here’s the lead paragraph of a story in the Miami Herald: “Large HMOs will have more power than ever in Florida’s growing Medicaid program under a major health-reform package that cleared the [Florida] House on Monday.” The Legislature hopes that managed care can keep cost increases in line. Most Medicaid enrollees will be placed into one HMO or another.

There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with an HMO. What is wrong is government favoring one method of payment over another. As the new health “reform” law causes private health insurance to wither on the vine, expect more and more people to end up in government-designed HMOs.

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Helping Individuals Sue the U.S. Government

A committee in the Florida House has passed three resolutions, one of which has to deal with the new health care “reform” law:

One [of the resolutions] would boost Attorney General Bill McCollum’s lawsuit challenging the new federal health-care law. The measure (PCB RCC 10-05) would allow the attorney general’s office to represent individual Floridians in lawsuits against the federal government. McCollum, a Republican running for governor, filed the health-care lawsuit on behalf of himself and the state.

Democrats said the bill is unnecessary because McCollum’s already has the power to sue the federal government.