Labels: AZ, Canada, Countries, States, UK

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Who could be against an initiative that protects the right of patients to choose and pay for a doctor or a health plan? The answer is proponents of a health-care system run by the government. For them, enshrining into law protections for private health plans is anathema. Believe it or not, the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce also opposes the initiative. Its big health-insurance members want to protect their interests as contractors to the state's Medicaid plan.

Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano argues that Proposition 101 would limit future health-care reform options. Eric Novack, a physician and the chairman of Proposition 101, responds, "The only option that our initiative rules out is a mandatory single-payer system." Single-payer health-care systems, as in Canada, make it illegal in most cases for people to go outside the government's system and contract for their own medical services. Arizona's proposition forbids those kinds of restrictions.

...Proposition 101 goes to the heart of the national health-care debate. Universal coverage plans, regulated by government, nearly always try to restrain costs by restricting the choices individual can make. This assumes a uniformity in the real-world of patients or the practice of medicine that simply doesn't exist, especially amid rapid developments in medical science. Who should decide -- the patient or a government treatment schedule -- whether a cancer sufferer should be able to try an experimental therapy or under what circumstances a senior citizen gets a hip replacement?

Allowing patients to choose their own medical treatment, get third or fourth opinions, or seek out experimental medicines saves lives. Randy Kendrick, an early supporter of the initiative, says her ability to look around for treatments among doctors after a serious leg injury saved her from what her original physicians said would be a life confined in a wheelchair. Courageous patients and innovative medical clinicians find each other constantly this way. The patient-clinician interface is one reason the U.S. remains a locus of medical progress. Ensuring this progress continues depends on maximizing patient choices. A publicly bureaucratized system will slow it.

Labels: Analysis, AZ, States

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On Election Day, Arizonans can give the nation the gift of a good example. They can enact a measure that could shape the health-care debate that will arrest or accelerate the nation's slide into statism. Proposition 101, the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act, would put the following language into Arizona's Constitution:

"Because all people should have the right to make decisions about their health care, no law shall be passed that restricts a person's freedom of choice of private health care systems or private plans of any type. No law shall interfere with a person's or entity's right to pay directly for lawful medical services, nor shall any law impose a penalty or fine, of any type, for choosing to obtain or decline health care coverage or for participation in any particular health care system or plan."

Labels: Analysis, AZ, States

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Supporters of the ballot initiative want to ensure that no health-reform scheme will strip them of their freedom to pay privately for health care. Opponents are concerned that if the initiative passes, it could preclude mandatory socialized health insurance.

Labels: AZ, States

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Medical Choice for Arizona
Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act -- A State Constitutional Initiative
March 2008

A MESSAGE TO ANYONE WHO IS, OR MAY SOMEDAY BE A MEDICAL PATIENT

Dear Friend:

My name is Jeff Singer, MD. I am a general surgeon in the greater Phoenix area, and am the Treasurer of a campaign committee called "Medical Choice for Arizona." We are circulating petitions to place on this November's ballot, "The Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act."

As I am sure you are well aware, momentum is building across the nation, by well-intentioned and not-so-well-intentioned people, for comprehensive --even radical-- reform of our health care system. Frustrated with the gridlock in Washington, many states are taking matters in to their own hands, and passing reforms aimed at achieving "universal coverage," but that ultimately will result in rationing of health care and limitations on our freedom of choice of health care options, treatments, and providers.

"The Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act" would amend the Arizona Constitution to insure that, whatever type of health care legislation ultimately emerges from our legislature, it will not be able to restrict our freedom of choice of private health care systems, plans, or options; it will not be able to prevent us from directly paying for lawful medical services; and it will not, in any way, be able to force us to participate in a plan or program if we don't want to.

What's more, our legal counsel, Clint Bolick (co-founder of the Institute for Justice, and currently Director of the Goldwater Institute's Center for Constitutional Litigation, among other things), who designed the language for our initiative, believes this might actually prevent a further FEDERAL intrusion into the healthcare system. He says that there is legal precedent for state constitutional law actually trumping federal law when the federal law trespasses into an area of police power that has been traditionally reserved to the states under the US Constitution. So passage of this amendment in AZ and other states would at least give us a fighting chance against those in DC who want to force us into a one-size-fits-all national health care plan.

Medical Choice for Arizona consists of people from across the political spectrum, all of whom want serious reform to our health care system -- all of whom want to reduce the ranks of the uninsured -- all of whom want to make sure our kids get adequate health care -- but who have differing views regarding what constitutes the best kind of reform. But there is one thing on which we all agree: WE MUST RETAIN THE RIGHT OF PEOPLE TO HAVE CONTROL OVER THEIR OWN HEALTH CARE CHOICES.

Medical Choice for Arizona is not about enacting -- or blocking -- any specific health care legislation. It is about preserving and protecting patients' choice.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO SUCCEED!

Please visit our website at www.medicalchoiceforaz.com to learn more about "The Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act." The actual ballot language, as well as "Frequently Asked Questions," and a way to donate online can be found at the site. If you have further questions, feel free to phone us at: 623-271-9576.

But most important, please consider making a contribution to our campaign. Arizona law places NO LIMITS on the amount of money that can be contributed to non-partisan citizens initiative campaigns like ours. The donations are not tax deductible. However, Arizona law DOES ALLOW corporate contributions to be made to initiative campaigns.

Please make your check out to: "Medical Choice for Arizona," and mail it to our address at:

3655 W. Anthem Way
Suite A-109--PMB 212
Anthem, AZ 85086

Health care reform is on the front burner in all the political debates this year. No time is more important than NOW to act to protect our right to choice in health care.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Jeff Singer, MD
Treasurer
Our Website: www.medicalchoiceforaz.com

Labels: AZ, States

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