As I ride home from a victorious evening in Tallahassee, I can’t help but love my country, complete with football, beautiful fall weather, and hospitable Southern folks. However, amidst this beautiful, sunny afternoon, the rays of our capitalist sun provide our country with great prosperity are being blocked by the storm brewing in our nation’s capital. Instead of preserving and defending our Constitution, politicians are focusing on how to get reelected by hastily passing a health care bill to fulfill liberal, socialist promises of old.

Is there hope to prevent an intrusive and unwanted healthcare bill? Senator Judson Hill thinks so. At his town hall on Monday, October 5, he made a case for protecting Georgians from an unwanted healthcare bill by enacting the natural defenses found in our Constitution: States’ Rights in the Tenth Amendment.

Does Georgia have the Constitutional ability to successfully reject a federal health care plan? By enforcing the Tenth Amendment and passing a Georgian constitutional amendment to preserve the freedom to choose to purchase or abstain from purchasing a health care plan, Georgia can protect itself from further economic damage that this healthcare bill would create.  The 10th states: “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution… are reserved to the States.” Certainly, the right to health care is not included in our Constitution, and the federal government arguably has no right to create such a bill. The state can use Constitutional law to reject ObamaCare.

Currently, health care accounts for one third of Georgia’s budget. Under ObamaCare, the state would assume a $1-3 billion responsibility that would kill our state’s economy. The state already must make huge program cuts and radical program transformations. Hill says that tax raises are not an option.  Instead, we need to focus on free market solutions for health care reform. To make health care more affordable for all Georgians, Georgia must open it’s borders to interstate commerce when purchasing a health care plan.  This means allowing individuals to buy their health care plan from Alabama or Florida. While this may harm insurance companies located in Georgia in the short run, the competition will force companies to adapt and reformulate their policies to cater to the consumer’s preferences. Prices will drop when the insurance companies feel the natural stress that a free market creates. Competition in the market place is always good for the consumer and sparks innovation. The health care market will respond to this competition in the same manner.

As the nation’s leader in conservative health care reform, Georgia has taken steps to prevent unfunded mandates from being shoved down the throats of Georgian tax payers like you and me. For example, in 2005, Hill co-sponsored a tort reform bill that impeded frivolous lawsuits against doctors that incur huge costs for these doctors, which trickles down to the consumer. Additionally, Georgia must enforce the law that require health insurance providers to partially refund its customers for insurance premiums if they are healthy. This incentive is a proactive way to promote a healthy lifestyle and lower health care costs.

Senator Hill and others are taking proactive, business-minded steps to true, conservative health care reform.