Obama’s Bernardin Amendment: Attempt to make health care a “right” in IL Constitution

Obviously, it wasn’t difficult for Obama to answer the Tuesday debate question on health care:

BROKAW: Quick discussion. Is health care in America a privilege, a right, or a responsibility?

OBAMA: Well, why don’t — why don’t — let’s talk about this, Tom, because there was just a lot of stuff out there.

BROKAW: Privilege, right or responsibility. Let’s start with that.

OBAMA: Well, I think it should be a right for every American. In a country as wealthy as ours, for us to have people who are going bankrupt because they can’t pay their medical bills — for my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they’re saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don’t have to pay her treatment, there’s something fundamentally wrong about that.

So let me — let me just talk about this fundamental difference. And, Tom, I know that we’re under time constraints, but Sen. McCain through a lot of stuff out there. ~~~

If Brokaw had known more about Obama’s state legislative record, would he have rephrased that question? For on Obama’s IL State Senate record is a bill called the Bernardin Amendment, introduced and sponsored by Rep. Mike Boland (D-East Moline) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Chgo).

This referendum/bill, had it passed, would have amended the Illinois State Constitution to add health care to the list of basic rights for Illinoisans… and was to be funded by the state’s $9.1 billion of money from a federal tobacco lawsuit.

Uh… and when that cash runs out, then what? LOL

Well, according to an article by Charles Wheeller, II in the U of IL May 1999 Illinois Issues, Illinois denizens jumped on the “health care is a right” band wagon in referendums across the state.

But the whole deal seemed ill-thought out. Opponents didn’t want a government run system. But proponents said

its wording gives great flexibility to the legislature. The charge is simply to design a plan “that permits everyone in Illinois to obtain decent health care on a regular basis.”

“It leaves it up to the legislature to come up with some type of plan to make sure everybody has access,” [Mike] Boland notes.

Well now, that’s brilliant. Build it into the Constitution without knowing the specifics? Rather a cart before the horse scene, don’t you think?

Jumping eagerly on the Constitutional amendment was… to no surprise… the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America party.

Chicago DSA endorsed and publicized a rally to kick off a campaign to place the Bernardin Amendment on the Illinois ballot in November, 2002. The rally was held on the steps of Holy Name Cathedral on Saturday, August 11.

The Bernardin Amendment would amend the Illinois Constitution to require the state to formulate a universal health care plan for the state within three years of its passage. The results of this vote would be binding; the amendment has been on the ballot in a number of Illinois jurisdictions as an advisory referendum in the past and it has passed each time overwhelmingly.

The amendment ultimately failed.

Now it must be said there are some states that have mention of health care in their Constitutions… amended. What Obama was attempting to do is not ground breaking, nor without precedent. But the devil in the details lies in just what other state Constitutions say about this “right”, and just how that “right” is enforced for insurers, businesses providing benefits, and parents who are without health insurance for whatever reason.

Which is where that pesky “how much is the penalty?” question that Obama never answered in the debate comes in…

Since Obama is now seeking to govern a nation, and not a state, perhaps the more pertinent question to the candidates would have been, “would you support a US Constitutional amendment making health care a constitutional right?”

I think based on McCain’s answer, we’d know his answer. But what would Obama’s be?