Rep. Horner supports health care freedom

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Rep. Horner supports health care freedom

Opinions

Thursday, 22 April 2010 08:36

Mike Horner
District 79 representative
Floridians and their doctors should be the ones making health care decisions, not politicians and bureaucrats.
For the better part of a year, my office has received countless phone calls and e-mails from constituents concerned about the so-called “health care reform” debate in Washington, D.C. My family and I share those concerns.
For this reason, I became a cosponsor of the Health Care Freedom Act in the Florida House of Representatives. The Health Care Freedom Act, if passed by the Legislature and approved by voters in November, would provide an additional and explicit protection in our state constitution preserving the fundamental right for Floridians to make their own decisions related to their individual health care needs. It also would protect Floridians from being forced into a system against their will under penalty of fines or imprisonment.
Our health care system has tremendous problems. It needs dramatic reform, but a government takeover of the system and government-forced participation in a mandated and prescribed program is not the answer.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, in conjunction with other Republican and Democrat Attorneys General across the country, has filed a federal lawsuit asserting that the United States Constitution does not grant the federal government the authority to impose this kind of requirement on Americans.
I was proud to stand with Attorney General McCollum at a press conference in Tallahassee, where he announced the details of the lawsuit.
Bill McCollum understands that if the Constitution’s “commerce clause” can be read to empower the government to penalize citizens for choosing not to engage in commercial activity, then there are few, if any, limits to the power the federal government can claim to exert.
I believe the Constitution was designed to place strict limits on the federal government’s power. This is, after all, why the inclusion of the Tenth Amendment was so important to our nation’s founders. The Tenth Amendment explicitly reserved powers to the states in an attempt to preserve the system of Federalism that serves as the basis for our Republic.
To read a copy of the Health Care Freedom Act or for more information about this legislation, I encourage you to visit www.liberty4florida.com. As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions and I thank you for allowing me the privilege of representing you in Tallahassee.
Mike Horner, R-Kissimmee, is state representative for district 79. He can be contacted by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .