Utah bills hit back at federal mandates

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is one of dozens of states pushing protest legislation this year aimed at holding federal health care reform mandates at bay.

Two such proposals gained approval at the Legislature on Tuesday.

A House resolution based on a model touted by a national legislators' group took a small step forward by winning committee approval on a party-line vote.

That bill, HJR11, sponsored by Rep. Michael Morley, R-Spanish Fork, cites the 10th Amendment as the basis for a state's right to opt out of any federal requirements and makes the claim that state health insurance regulation has "served all interests well."

Rep. Brian King, D-Salt Lake, took issue with that assertion during the morning's committee hearing.

"I think this is an extraordinarily ill-advised resolution," King said. "We are failing abysmally at covering uninsured people in the state of Utah."

While Morley was unable to cite how many residents are uninsured in the state, he did indicate a third or more of those who lack insurance coverage do so by choice. He described his bill as part of a national groundswell to re-assert states' rights, one being coordinated by the American Legislative Exchange Council.

King, however, isn't convinced Morley's pursuit of the issue through a states' rights argument helps those who can't afford or access health care.

"Every other industrialized nation in this world, except Mexico, regulates the way health care is financed and delivered on a national level," King said. "It is clear we are not getting it done state by state in the U.S. Compared to what it could be and should be, it's a complete failure."

HJR11 now moves to the House floor for further consideration.

Also approved in committee Tuesday was HB67, described by sponsor Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, as a shield to protect the sovereign rights of the state from the increasing encroachment of the federal government into the lives of U.S. citizens.

The bill would require that any mandates, such as requiring all Americans to sign up for health insurance, be drafted into state legislation that would have to be approved by lawmakers and signed by the governor before it could be implemented, effectively giving the state a year's time to review the issue.

Wimmer and several witnesses in favor of the bill said health care reform has become a last-stand issue for 29 other states, which believe that Congress is bound and determined to approve reform whether the states like it or not.

The state already has embarked on its own health care system reform through a special legislative task force that has neither sought nor needs any federal dispensations, Wimmer said.

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