Texas Insider

By St. Senator Jeff Wentworth, District 25

Lt. Governor David Dewhurst has jointly charged the Senate Health & Human Services and the Senate State Affairs committees with studying the effects of the federal health care reform legislation to determine all of Texas’ options.  Before the next Texas Legislative Session convenes in January 2011, members of the Texas Legislature will be taking a hard look at the healthcare reform bill which was passed by the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C., on March 21.  

These committees will met jointly on March 31 at 11 a.m. in the State Capitol to hear invited testimony only.  There will be an opportunity to provide input to the committees at a later date.

In addition to the committees’ review of the federal health care reform bill, on the day President Obama signed the bill, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott signed on to a legal action challenging the new law’s constitutionality.  

The complaint was filed in federal court in Florida where that state’s attorney general is taking the lead on challenging the new law. 

Other states that have joined in the lawsuit are Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington, South Carolina and South Dakota.

The lawsuit claims the bill violates the 10th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which states that the federal government has no authority beyond the powers granted to it under the Constitution. 

State sovereignty was debated during last year’s 81st Texas Legislative Session as House Concurrent Resolution 50.  The resolution passed the House of Representative in the waning hours of the session, arriving in the Senate too late for a vote.

Although HCR 50 was never voted on in the Senate, I believe that a limited national government is necessary to preserve our individual liberties, including the right to choose not to have health care coverage without paying a penalty for doing so.

I also believe that some health insurance reforms are sorely needed. 

For example, I do not believe that an insurance company should be able to drop a consumer who has become ill nor should anyone be denied insurance because of a preexisting condition.

In addition, I believe that families and businesses should be allowed to cross state lines when buying insurance, and provisions should be made so that employees could take their insurance with them when they change jobs and not have to stay in a job that was unsatisfactory just to keep their insurance.

Finally, and probably one of the difficult points for both sides of the issue is tort reform. 

I believe that economic damages should be capped at a reasonable amount rather than unlimited.  Had that been the case, insurance rates more than likely would not have increased to the point where they were unaffordable for much of the population.

As we say in Texas, “There has to be a better way.” 

I am confident that Texas legislators working together can find a way to provide Texans with the opportunity to purchase affordable health insurance should the courts rule that the new health care insurance law is unconstitutional.