LA House Votes to Nullify Federally Mandated Health Insurance
Louisiana lawmakers want to exempt LA citizens from the federal mandate requiring all citizens to purchase health insurance.
The House of Representatives voted 59-15 today to declare that Louisiana residents should not be subject to the looming mandate to buy health insurance, an anchor provision of President Barack Obama's recently enacted health care overhaul.
Both the debate and the vote fell along party lines, with a handful of Democrats joining Republicans to forge a majority. Several other Democrats chose not to vote, a tacit admission of the political difficulty, particularly for white Democrats, of associating with a president who is overwhelmingly unpopular among white Louisiana voters.
House Bill 1474 states that every Louisiana resident "is and shall be free from governmental intrusion in choosing or declining to choose any mode of securing health insurance coverage without penalty or threat of penalty."
Interestingly, the one argument that Republican legislators don't seem to be making in support of their bill (HB 1474) is that their constituents cannot afford such a mandate, which does lead one to wonder why that objection was raised so loudly before the health reform initiative passed?
