Do They Also Oppose Mom and Apple Pie?
Though not yet official, the ballot recount shows Arizona’s Proposition 101 will probably be defeated by less than a half a percent. Subject to a ballot recount since last week’s election, the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act reads that “no law shall be passed that restricts a person’s freedom of choice of private health care systems or private plans of any type.” Also: “No law shall interfere with a person’s right to pay directly for lawful medical services. . . .” [link]
So, who could possibly oppose such noble ideas? The Chamber of Commerce. Insurance companies. The Governor. And they outspent the supporters by about four-to-one. George Will’s editorial is here.
Medical Choice for Arizona, the organization that backed Proposition 101, has conceded defeat. This is unfortunate since some constitutional scholars believed Proposition 101 could have potentially prevented Arizona residents from ever being saddled with a state-run health care system.
The entire Arizona Medicaid establishment ran against Proposition 101 apparently because it would impede its ability to use the people in the state as lab rats in health care reform experiments.
The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (Medicaid) enjoys grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation State Coverages Initiatives program. Director Anthony Rodgers clearly thinks that he should have the right to experiment using the the people of Arizona. Some of his choice quotes include describing Arizona as a “Policy Laboratory for Small Business Coverage.” He also described the Arizona Medicaid Health Information Exchange Utility as a “health system transformation.”
What it really is is an untested system for computerizing patient records.
Lab rats? That´s catchy, Linda. And probably accurate.