States Fighting Back Against Mandatory Insurance

The September 28, 2009 New York Times reported on a growing movement in some state legislatures to oppose a key provision in the proposed Obama/Baucus health care plan, namely mandatory insurance.

Here's an excerpt from, "In Some States, a Push to Ban Mandate on Insurance":

In more than a dozen statehouses across the country, a small but growing group of lawmakers is pressing for state constitutional amendments that would outlaw a crucial element of the health care plans under discussion in Washington: the requirement that nearly everyone buy insurance or pay a penalty.

...[T]the measures could create legal collisions that would be both expensive and cause delays to health care changes, and could be a rallying point for opponents in the increasingly tense debate.

I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know how successful these challenges will be.

But if it helps focus public attention on the underlying issue of whether the government should be able to force individuals to purchase any product (such as insurance) as a requirement for residing in this country, then I hope it spurs some debate.