TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) The Kansas Senate has given first-round approval to a proposed amendment to the state constitution challenging a key federal mandate on health care.
But before advancing the so-called health “freedom” amendment on a voice vote Thursday, senators modified it so that a statewide vote on the proposition would occur only if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the federal health care law.
A final vote on the measure was expected Thursday evening.
The amendment would declare that Kansans have the right to refuse to buy health insurance. A provision in the federal health care overhaul of 2010 requiring most Americans to buy insurance, starting in 2014.
Critics of the proposed amendment said if the federal law is upheld, it will be supreme, making the Kansas measure meaningless.
