Senate Majority Leader Jay Emler, R-Lindsborg
(Photo by Dave Ranney)
TOPEKA — The top ranking members of the Kansas Senate say a constitutional amendment up for debate this week in the Kansas House is at best unnecessary and at worst potentially misleading to voters.
Supporters of the proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution say it would exempt Kansans from parts of the federal health reform law, specifically the mandate that those who can afford health insurance must have it or pay a tax penalty.
But Senate President Steve Morris, Vice President John Vratil and Majority Leader Jay Emler, all Republicans, each said at a Friday news conference that the amendment and a companion bill are exercises in futility because federal courts would trump them.
"Are we wasting a lot of taxpayer dollars on something we don’t have to worry about?" Emler said, suggesting that the legal challenge that Kansas and 25 other states have made to the law is the best way for its opponents to proceed.
"Don’t take this that I support what happened at the federal level, but let’s see what happens before we amend the constitution of the state," he said.
The proposed amendment, HCR 5007, states that no person, provider or employer can be forced to participate in any health care system or to purchase insurance. The Affordable Care Act, starting in 2014, would require virtually all Americans over age of 18 to obtain coverage or face fines. Exemptions would be allowed for those with religious objections and federal subsidies or tax credits would help those who otherwise couldn’t afford the coverage.
"What they’re saying, I believe, shows just how out of touch the Senate leadership is with the people of Kansas," said Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee and the main sponsor of the amendment.
Landwehr’s committee approved the resolution last week, sending it to the House floor for a vote, possibly this week. It would require two-thirds majority approval in both the House and Senate to be placed on the 2012 general election ballot for consideration by voters.
Vratil, who in addition to being the Senate’s number two ranking official, plays key roles on the Judiciary and Ways and Means committees, said that the supremacy clause in the U.S. Constitution precludes state laws or constitutional provisions from overriding federal law. He also said the lawsuit filed by Kansas and the other states is the most effective way to challenge the reform law.
A federal judge in Florida ruled in favor of the states last week, declaring the so-called individual mandate in the reform law unconstitutional. To date, four federal judges have ruled on the law, two have upheld it and two have struck it down. The mixed decisions virtually assure that the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately will decide if the law is constitutional.
Kansas Senate leaders weren’t ready to say that they wouldn’t allow a vote on the constitutional amendment should it pass the House. But Vratil said he had concerns about allowing it to move forward.
"My biggest concern in the Legislature taking some action is that it may tend to mislead the public into thinking that we’re really doing something substantive and it’s going to affect their lives when the truth is we haven’t done anything substantive," he said.
But that misses the point, Landwehr said.
"The people of Kansas have a right to speak out against Obamacare," she said. "They don’t want it. They’re against it. I understand that. The Senate leadership apparently does not."
More at: http://www.khi.org/news/2011/feb/07/optout-amendment/.