The Kansas Health Care Freedom Amendment failed to pass out of the Kansas House today after the measure gained a vote of 75-47, which was nine votes short of what was needed for the legislation to be adopted.

House Concurrent Resolution 5032 needed to pass the House and the Senate with a two-thirds majority in order for Kansas residents to have the opportunity to vote on whether or not to amend the state constitution to include the Health Care Freedom Amendment.

The measure can be brought up for reconsideration in the Kansas House within the next 24 hours.

There were four Republicans who voted against the measure in general orders and during the final action vote today. Rep. Jill Quigley, R-Lenexa; Rep. Barbara Bollier, R-Mission Hills; Rep. Charles Roth, R-Wichita and Rep. Tom Sloan, R-Lawrence each voted against the Health Care Freedom Amendment.

Click here to see how House legislators voted on HCR 5032

The Health Care Freedom Amendment would provide protection for Kansas residents from being forced into complying with the mandates included in the federal health-care bill which narrowly passed the U.S. House Sunday and was signed today by President Barack Obama.

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., Rep. Jerry Moran, R-First District; Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Second District and Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Fourth District have endorsed the Health Care Freedom Amendment. Tiahrt sent out a release today urging the Kansas House to adopt the measure.

"The Kansas House of Representatives today has the opportunity to send a message to Washington, D.C. that unfunded federal mandates and forced compliance in a nationalized health care system will not be tolerated,” Tiahrt said. “Kansans should be given the opportunity to vote whether their state Constitution will protect their rights regarding their health care decisions. The disastrous health care bill passed Sunday in the U.S. House should not be allowed to mandate coverage or levy fines and penalties against Kansans who choose to not participate in any nationalized health care plan.”

There are currently 39 states which are promoting initiatives similar to the Health Care Freedom Amendment. These states, including Kansas, have modeled legislation off of the non-partisan American Legislative Exchange Council’s Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act.

Virginia, Arizona and Idaho’s Legislatures have successfully adopted these initiatives and their residents will have the opportunity to vote in 2010 on whether or not they want to amend their state constitutions to include the freedom amendment.

Immediately following Obama’s decision to sign the health-care overhaul a coalition of Attorneys General from 14 states have announced they will challenge the constitutionality of the legislation in the courts. States challenging the health-care proposal include: Florida, South Carolina, Nebraska, Texas, Michigan, Utah, Pennsylvania, Alabama, South Dakota, Louisiana, Idaho, Washington and Colorado.

Proponents of the Health Care Freedom Amendment argue that adopting the constitutional amendment would assist the state in winning any lawsuit launched against the federal health-care mandates.

“I believe we are a nation of the people, by the people, for the people,” said Rep. Peggy Mast, R-Emporia, who is a co-sponsor of HRC 5032.

Several legislators argued that they did not believe that adopting a constitutional amendment would serve as any type of protective tool for the state against the federal government’s mandate.

“This amendment will not help you,” said Rep. Ed Trimmer, D-Winfield.

Among the growing list of Health Care Freedom Amendment supporters is a local resident who happens to be the cousin of President Barack Obama.

Dr. Milton Wolf, is President Obama’s second cousin and a resident of Leawood, Kansas. Wolf is an adamant opponent to Obama’s health-care overhaul.

“The Health Care Freedom Amendment is the last line of defense between ObamaCare and Kansas,” Wolf told Kansas Liberty.

Wolf first started speaking out against President Obama’s health-care overhaul plans in a blog. Wolf was quickly noticed by the media and has appeared on various news shows including FOX & Friends. Wolf has also written an Op-Ed which appeared in the Washington Post.

Today Wolf hosted a press conference in the Kansas Statehouse to discuss his support of the Health Care Freedom Amendment.

Wolf, who works as a radiologist, said he was concerned about how the federal legislation will impact his patients as well as his family. One of Wolf’s top concerns is how the health-care proposal will work to ration care, an aspect within the legislation which Democrats vehemently refer to as a myth.

“It would probably be a good idea for them to actually read the legislation,” Wolf told Kansas Liberty.

Wolf cited as evidence of rationing section 3403 of the adopted legislation and its provisions to create the Medicare Advisory Board, which Wolf refers to as the “Medicare Rationing Commission.”

Wolf said this Commission will work to reduce Medicare funding and that their actions will have the strength of the law without the need of any Congressional input. One cost-cutting mechanism within the legislation is to penalize the top ten percent of physicians who refer their patients to specialists.

“It does not care if your daughter hurt her arm and needs an orthopedic surgeon,” Wolf said. “It does not care if your mother is short of breath and needs a pulmonologist. It matters only to them how many of your doctor’s patients are sick enough to need a specialist. There’s no other way to say it — “ObamaCare” penalizes your doctor for providing medical care. This is rationing.”

Wolf lives in the district represented by Sen. John Vratil, a moderate Republican from Leawood. Vratil helped defeat a Senate version of the Health-care Freedom Amendment within the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“If ObamaCare becomes the law of Kansas then he becomes just as responsible as Barack Obama himself for foisting ObamaCare on Kansas,” Wolf said.

Wolf said that any legislator opposing the Health Care Freedom Amendment should be viewed as a supporter of Obama’s health-care overhaul.

“We should hold them just as responsible as Barack Obama himself,” Wolf said.

—Holly Smith

Resources:

Kansas Health Care Freedom Amendment

Previously on Kansas Liberty:

Health Care Freedom Amendment passes House general orders

Republicans on the left help defeat Health Care Freedom Amendment

The Week in Review