From the time it was passed, the more the American people have learned about President Obama’s federal healthcare overhaul, the more they dislike it. According to a USA Today poll released earlier this month, three-fourths of Americans think the law is unconstitutional. Rasmussen Reports indicates that 53 percent of likely voters support repeal of the law, compared to just 38 percent who want the law to stay. Additionally, the Congressional Budget Office recently reported that the cost of Obamacare will be about double of what was initially expected, in the neighborhood of $1.76 trillion.

Although no state has the power to repeal any portion of the federal healthcare law, we should be willing to do everything in our power to make our voices heard. Therefore, the Ohio House in late February passed House Concurrent Resolution 35. The resolution urges President Obama “to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to rescind the rule requiring religious employers to include contraceptive services in their health insurance plans in violation of their religious beliefs.”

If the federal government has the power to mandate what religious groups do, then where does the government’s authority end? In the Bill of Rights, our Founding Fathers explicitly granted protection for religious organizations from the government. It is up to us to uphold these protections.

The rule was eventually changed after Americans made their opposition felt and heard. Unfortunately, the federal government simply redirected their focus from one irresponsible mandate to another. Under the revised provision, religious institutions no longer have to offer contraceptive services, but instead insurance companies must provide the service free of charge. The federal government should avoid determining what private companies sell or provide because it throws the competitiveness of the free market out of balance.

The more government gets involved in the private sector, the less room there is for other companies to enter the market and differentiate themselves from their competitors. When left alone, the free market can achieve extraordinary things. Limitless government intervention simply muddies the water and places barriers in the way of economic progress.

HCR 35 was a stand against the government trampling on our religious and economic liberties. A person’s moral convictions are too important to be left in the hands of bureaucrats in Washington.

State Representatives Anne Gonzales (R-Westerville) and Kristina Daley Roegner (R-Hudson) have announced that the Ohio House of Representatives today passed House Bill 244, which permits authorized paramedics to administer immunizations for influenza to firefighters or emergency medical technicians.

Under current Ohio law, local fire and EMS departments need to hire contractors to provide the immunizations. H.B. 244 provides an option that fire and EMS departments currently do not have, which will offer increased flexibility for scheduling purposes as well as cost savings.

“House Bill 244 will allow fire departments to run more cost effectively, while also enhancing public safety within our communities,” Rep. Gonzales said.

In the House Health and Aging Committee, Columbus Division of Fire Medical Director David Keseg testified in support of H.B. 244, saying that this legislation will decrease the spread of influenza from EMS providers to the public they serve. Further, he noted that paramedics are already trained to administer flu immunizations, but the current legal authority to do this was limited.

"I am delighted that the Ohio House passed House Bill 244, a common-sense bill that not only provides cost savings and scheduling flexibility for local fire departments and paramedics, but also should protect the public, whom they serve, from contracting the flu," said Rep. Roegner.

H.B. 244 passed unanimously and will now be sent to the Senate for further consideration.

It’s hard to believe that President Obama signed his federal health care plan into law more than two years ago, but the controversy over the law continues to surface on a regular basis. Thinking back to that time, many of us are reminded of the political polarization, being kept in the dark, and what seemed like sheer chaos in Washington.

But it’s not this—or even the fact that the law is harmful to our state’s businesses and residences—that makes me so irritated with Obamacare. It’s the fact that we believe our rights were infringed upon and our voices were silenced. As a result, Representative Ron Maag and I decided to provide Ohioans with a chance to be heard on this issue through House Joint Resolution 2.

HJR 2 was companion legislation to Senate Joint Resolution 1, which ultimately became the vehicle that both the Ohio House and Ohio Senate voted on. The legislation was known as the Ohio Health Care Freedom Act, and with a simple three-fifths vote by both chambers of the legislature, the issue would have been put on the ballot for our citizens to decide if the federal health care law went too far.

Although the Health Care Freedom Act would not have outright repealed the federal health law, it would have given Ohioans a chance to say whether or not a law requiring participation in a health care system should be prohibited or not. The Senate had no problem passing SJR 1, but unfortunately the Ohio House fell just one vote short because the members of the Democratic caucus were fearful and believed they knew better than the citizens who they represent. Just one more vote would have put the issue directly on the ballot for your vote.

The facts indicate that the health care law is an unconstitutional overreach of the federal government. It will be detrimental to our state and nation even more than the financial trouble we already find ourselves in. Time and time again, we have seen that big government does not work for us. We prefer for our decisions to be made at the local level. And ultimately, it should be up to us as individuals to decide what is best for our families. Obamacare infringes upon this right, which is why Ohioans should have had a choice through the passage of SJR 1.

Not everything in the federal health care plan is bad. Unfortunately, the individual mandate makes the entire bill fundamentally flawed. Before Obamacare was passed, Columbus was ahead of Washington in designing innovative reforms to problems in our health care system. Now, our state is forced to exit these ideas to follow a set of rules which includes mandating insurance.

I introduced the Health Care Freedom Act as a means of empowering Ohioans to have their voices heard on this important issue. I’m pleased to report that, regardless of this legislation failing to gain the support of the House minority that it needed to pass, Ohioans have collected enough signatures for the issue of health care to be put on the ballot this November.

I hope that in the future, Ohioans will continue to have opportunities for their views to be expressed. In the meantime, feel free to continue contacting my office with your questions and concerns about what we can do to better our state.

Toledo Blade, 8/14/2011

Your July 29 editorial “Wasted tax dollars” might have misled readers about an important issue in Ohio.

You attempted to highlight Republican hypocrisy by pointing to the party’s opposition to an individual health-insurance mandate, but not to the state law that requires people to purchase auto insurance.

Although these things are frequently compared, they are different. The health-care law establishes a mandate over the entire country. The car insurance mandate is enforced by individual states, which do not face the same constraints under the Constitution as does the federal government.

States can enforce this law because drivers travel on public roads. Requiring a person to buy car insurance is done to protect others who share the publicly owned property.

Only drivers are required to buy car insurance. The law is not extended to people who do not drive.

Governments should not force people to buy health insurance, just as they cannot force someone to drive a car. ObamaCare infringes on economic rights and individual liberty.

Every Republican in the Ohio House and Senate supported the Health Care Freedom Act to put the issue on the November ballot. One more supportive House vote would have secured its spot on the ballot, but Democrats stood in lockstep, too fearful to allow Ohioans a voice in the debate.

Thanks to grass-roots efforts, the issue was certified for the ballot. I applaud these efforts because I believe in giving Ohioans the opportunity to speak up and be included in the national debate.

Barbara Sears
Ohio House of Representatives
46th District Monclova Township

State Representative Anne Gonzales (R-Westerville) recently announced that the Cardinal Health Foundation has awarded patient safety grants to Ohio Health and Nationwide Children’s Hospital to improve the efficiency and quality of patient care.

A total of 39 Cardinal Health E3 grants amounting to nearly $1.2 million will encourage providers across the nation to submit funding requests for programs that seek to improve medication management or operating room safety.

“Cardinal Health understands the importance of improving the efficiency and quality for patient care. These grants will allow Ohio Health and Nationwide Children’s Hospital to focus their priorities on the patients,” said Gonzales.

Over the past decade, Cardinal Health and the Cardinal Health Foundation have contributed more than $150 million in cash and product donations to non-profit organizations, domestically and abroad.