Oregon Senator Backing Off from Federal Individual Health Care Mandate-- After Voting for It

Sen. Wyden has apparently decided that Oregonians don't really like economically fascist laws that force Americans to purchase federally regulated health insurance. He reached this conclusion after voting for a law containing such a mandate, as well as featuring such a mandate in his own health care bill-- the Healthy Americans Act.

From the Huffington Post via LibertyCentral.org:

"One of the most innovative voices in the health care debate, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), is accelerating the process of exempting his state from some of the national reforms passed under President Barack Obama.

"The Oregon Democrat is seeking to take advantage of a provision he helped write into the legislation that allows states to set up their own health care systems as long as they meet minimal requirements established by the Department of Health and Human Services. In a letter to the state’s Health Authority office, Wyden announced that he will introduce legislation to accelerate the start date for state waivers from 2017 to 2014, if not earlier for Oregon specifically.

"In addition, he strongly suggested that the state should use the provision to exempt Oregon from the individual mandate, which would penalize those individuals who refuse to purchase insurance coverage. The mandate was a feature of Wyden’s own health care bill but has proved to be remarkably unpopular among voters."

Yes, the individual health mandate was remarkably unpopular. It would certainly seem that Wyden believes that backing off from that single hot button topic will help diffuse the issue. Of course there are a few other aspects of the law that Americans don't like as well... Such as:

1) The fact that federal bureaucracies will determine Americans health care requirements (does anybody really want to start lobbying for their particular maladies, worries, or diseases to be covered?)

2) The fact that the law will cost $1.2 trillion in its first ten years according to the CBO

3) The fact that that it extraordinarily unlikely that Americans will be able to keep their health coverage if they like it (as confirmed by internal administration documents), despite promises to the contrary

4) The fact that Americans' health premiums will rise under ObamaCare

5) The fact that the government will ration health care much in the way Britain's National Health Service does

Strangely, Wyden doesn't seem to have any answers for these concerns... but hey Oregon will be able to opt out of the mandate-- just as long as all Oregon health care plans conform to the federal government's national guidelines that will change from year to year as the federal boards change coverage requirements yearly. Well, that makes everything better, doesn't it?

This law must be repealed. No compromises.