Support Louisiana Healthcare Freedom Act; Committee Vote Thursday

House Bill 1474 by Representative Kirk Talbot and Senate Bill 26 by Senator A.G. Crowe are modeled after the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act to protect patients’ rights in Louisiana.

Crowe’s Senate Bill 26 is effectively dead. It has been buried by Senate leaders in the grossly inappropriate Senate Finance Committee, where it has been sitting untouched and unnoticed for all of session.

Fortunately, Republican Speaker Jim Tucker and the House are not playing games with our freedoms and passed HB 1474 with a vote of 59-15, which now heads to the Senate Health and Welfare Committee where it will be heard Thursday, June 3 at noon.

Contact your State Senator to ensure that HB 1474 is given the attention it justly deserves in the Senate. We demand that this bill be given a FAIR hearing and an up or down vote of the FULL Senate.

With our fundamental liberties at stake, will you help us accomplish this goal? Please consider a donation right now to protect the freedom of choice in health care for Louisianians.

With the recent passage of ObamaCare – which imposes actions such as an individual mandate – HB 1474 is an essential tool in securing the rights of patients to make their own health care choices.

HB 1474 protects the rights of patients to pay directly for medical services, and it prohibits penalties levied on patients for declining participation in a particular health plan.

With only 3 weeks remaining to enact this legislation, we must TAKE ACTION NOW to protect the Doctor-Patient relationship.

The stakes are high. HB 1474 protects us from being punished by the government for not purchasing government-approved health insurance. If not enacted, there would be no block to the costly and bureaucratic penalties for choosing to obtain your own plan or decline health coverage.

It is important to note that HB 1474 does not nullify the federal health care act recently signed by President Obama. Rather, it challenges provisions of the law that are arguably unconstitutional – specifically, the health insurance coverage mandate.

Your support now will help us keep up the fight and target the most vulnerable parts of the ObamaCare legislation.